Invincible
by madaliz
Summary: Eight years later, the moment they met would be widely regarded as the beginning of a legend. This is the story of today, and how they get there. (Touou!Kagami AU, Eventual AoKaga)
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER ONE**

**A/N:** This is an idea that just wouldn't leave me alone. So despite my lack of confidence in writing fiction, I gave it a shot. This first chapter is the compiled parts 1-3 posted on my tumblr (madalie. tumblr tagged/ fic). I'll post a new chapter here for every 3 parts I post on tumblr (actually this already has six parts up, so I'll post the next chapter tomorrow or the day after). If the content here is slightly different that's because I edited them from how they were on tumblr. I self-edit though, and English isn't my native tongue, so I might still miss some things. [note: rating MIGHT change later on]

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Eight years later, the moment they met would be widely regarded as the beginning of a legend, but nine years before that, or a year before today, Kagami Taiga and Aomine Daiki are experiencing the worst day of their lives.

It happens like this: Himuro Tatsuya challenges Kagami Taiga to a final one-on-one, wherein the stakes are nothing less than the most important relationship of Kagami's life, while, on the other side of the globe Aomine Daiki discovers that the light and love of his life is no longer something worth doing. Later that day when Kagami is coercing his parents to send him to Japan and Aomine is trying not to think of the face of the friend whose fist bump offer he ignored, the thought that_"Everything is going to change"_ crosses their minds.

And, true to their suspicions, nothing was ever the same.

The less said about the one year gap between the worst day of their lives and the day they meet the better. This is what they tell themselves now, and this is what they tell all nosy interviewers and paparazzi eight years later.

Kagami doesn't want to remember, and he doesn't want people asking, but for a while (ten months exactly) he just couldn't bring himself to play basketball with anyone else (but himself). The realization hits him a month after his arrival in Japan in the form of the phrase: _"I can't do this"_. The presence of other people on court felt so stifling he had to quit his new middle school's basketball club and started playing street basketball on his own (everyday, for ten months). Nine years later from then (or eight years later from today) Kagami still regards this as the darkest period of his life. He spent the next ten months wallowing in something that wasn't quite self-hate but more than just a little bit like it. He tells himself he feels bad because the standards in Japan are so damn _**bad**_, and he believes it.

And while he's busy unconsciously riling himself up with negativity, Aomine is trying to wind himself _**down **_with passivity. He steels himself to stop caring and starts becoming a heartless arrogant bastard, and unwittingly, drags his teammates down with him. It's not that he was not, on some level, aware of what was happening around him, but if he started to care about _**that**_ or_**anything **_for that matter, it would have pretty much been a slippery slope. He didn't want that. So he tells himself nothing matters, and, like Kagami, he believes it.

Ten months later from that, one Kuroko Tetsuya disappears from the Teikou basketball team's sight, and, finally admitting to himself playing alone made him feel _**worse**_ (or actually figuring he wouldn't find a challenge by not playing against anyone else), Kagami Taiga starts playing against others again.

One month later from _**that**_, otherwise known as the beginning of a legend, or today, Aomine Daiki meets Kagami Taiga for the first time.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Aomine looks at the new arrival and likens him to an abandoned dog—wary, irritable, and a little nervous. Their homeroom teacher mentions that he's a returning student from America, which gets Aomine's attention for all of five seconds before the rest of the class starts throwing questions at the guy. No way is he going to fight the crowd just because the new kid caught his attention for a bit. Too much energy wasted.

Absentmindedly, Aomine notes that you really get the return student vibe in heaps from the way he struggles to answer all the questions. He doesn't seem to know _**how**_ he should talk, he has no accent but he looks like he's having a hard time choosing words. It's kind of funny in a pathetic way cause he's trying to talk politely but he keeps slipping into a really disrespectful mode of talking and it's just—nobody talks like that (1). There's disrespectful, and then there's this. You don't hear a guy talking like this anywhere but a manga. Who the hell taught this kid Japanese? Maybe it's a thing with returning students. He wouldn't know though, no point of comparison and all and—AGH

_'Everyone is so damn _noisy, _like what the hell'_—he tilts his head back, closes his eyes and rubs the bridge of his nose, hoping somehow he can block the noise out of his mind.

"Ok that's enough" their teacher says it firmly enough that the chattering dies down "Kagami-kun, your seat will be the one next to Aomine-kun's in the back"

Aomine slowly opens his eyes, and finds… the new guy staring at him.

….Correction, _**glaring**_ at him, _'The hell is this guy's problem?'_

"…Nice to meet you" Kagami says after a beat.

_'Well that was unexpected'_ Aomine thinks before saying "Hi."

Kagami nods at him as he sits, then turns his attention to whatever their teacher is saying.

Aomine's gaze lingers on him for a moment, gives him a once over one last time before turning his attention to whatever it is their teacher is saying too.

Thirty minutes later, or ten minutes into first period, Aomine falls asleep and Kagami is staring at him like he's grown another head (though he tries his best to seem like he _**isn't**_ staring).

When Kagami first entered the classroom Aomine had immediately caught his eye. Sure the guy looked sleepy, bored out of his wits, and itching to get out of his seat, but he also had this weird commanding aura to him. Admittedly, Kagami isn't the best at reading people most of the time, but he had a pretty good sense of who had the potential to succeed and who didn't, because people like that smelled different. He didn't even know his name, but Kagami _**did**_ know that Aomine's smell was overwhelming, and that was, well, that was _**interesting**_.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Kagami joins the Touou basketball club, but he hasn't actually heard shit about it before he does. He does overhear the other freshmen talk about how they've been recruiting really good players lately to strengthen the team and how they even got the _"ace of the generation of miracles"_(_'Whatever the hell that means'_, Kagami thinks), and thinks _'Good, I would have quit if they were weak'_.

The freshmen are lined up, introductions are made, and all the while the guy standing next to Kagami is fidgeting and muttering _'Sorry'_ every time he so much as _**looks **_at him. But when Kagami realizes the guy doesn't smell like a weakling (quite the opposite in fact) he also realizes that something is up with this team. The thought latches on to his mind tighter when the team captain walks in and starts talking. He has the creepiest looking smile on his face, a voice that's trying to be sincere (but only sounds patronizing 75% of the time), and a smell akin to that kid who used to blackmail people into giving him their snacks in his elementary school. He should really be uncomfortable, but he actually finds himself _**excited.**_

What happens next is something he should have expected in hindsight, but surprises him anyway. His new seatmate (with the commanding presence) walks into the gym getting scolded for being late by the girl introduced earlier as their new team manager. He stands to the team captain's left and gets introduced as "Aomine Daiki from Teikou" as if it's supposed to mean something, and when all the other freshmen start fidgeting as Aomine looks at them and they look at him, Kagami guesses that yeah, it probably should. So he does the only logical thing to do in that situation, he challenges Aomine to a one-on-one.

His sudden declaration is met by silence.

Everyone stares at him like he's crazy, except their team captain, who seems incredibly amused, and Aomine, who's looking at him like he doesn't know what to make of him at all.

His tone irritated and lazy, Aomine says "Eh? Who are y—"

And then he stops, looking as if something just dawned on him. He stares at Kagami's face, and his expression goes from surprised to slightly amused.

"You're the returning student." He says, and he has this smirk on his face that makes Kagami want to punch him. "Alright then, let's play"

Their team captain and manager look at each other. Their captain (Imayoshi, if Kagami is remembering it right) says "Do whatever you want" at the same moment the manager says "We should ask the coach first".

She glares at him for that, and he gives her the most unapologetic apologetic look that anyone has ever seen in reply.

"Fine" she says, sighing "I guess if Aomine-kun wants to, the coach would have said yes anyway"

And then, Kagami swears, he hears a tall blonde second year to the captain's right say "Stupid fucking bastard" but Imayoshi elbows him so hard that he doubles over, so he doesn't really know for sure.

He's snapped out of his thoughts when a ball is thrown to his face. He catches it despite his surprise, and he's about to mouth off the bastard who threw it at him but stops when he realizes it was Aomine.

"Stop standing around, you challenged me remember? Let's get on with this" Kagami just really, really wants to punch the bastard, but beating him at a one-on-one would be much more satisfying. So he keeps silent and walks towards where Aomine is.

"Just so you know—" Aomine starts, when they're face to face "—this is me testing you. Nobody's expecting a real match."

Kagami grits his teeth, _"What the fuck is this bastard's __DEAL?"_, he's about to retort but the way Aomine's face shifts from a smirk to something darker quiets him.

"I'm not looking for something that doesn't exist like a player who's better than me. I just want to know how much you can do, to relieve my boredom."

Aomine's intensity is actually downright scary up close like this, but Kagami won't let it bother him. He takes a slow, deep breath before he says "You really know how to piss a guy off don't you? Shut up and play. I am going to _**CRUSH **_you."

The smirk he receives in reply gives him the feeling that this won't really work out the way he wants it to.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Kagami loses spectacularly.

He would find it funny if he didn't feel so humiliated. Despite his shame however, he can't help but get fired up, because this guy, Aomine? He's damn fucking amazing. He's so unreal that Kagami is actually extremely upset about it. At the same time though, he did say he wanted a challenge, and well, this is it, and it is one _**heck **_of a challenge.

"You lose" Aomine says, staring down at Kagami who'd fallen flat on his ass

Kagami grunts, hopes that the sound says _"Yeah I KNOW"_ for him clearly enough, and starts getting up. Aomine says nothing further and walks out of the gym. Their team manager seems to want to try to call after him but then pauses, sighs, and mutters "Oh nevermind…"

The rest of the freshmen try to pretend the one-on-one didn't just happen (after Kagami glares a few gigglers into silence), but the tension is painfully apparent when they're being grouped for practice matches between first years.

"In case you've already forgotten I'm Momoi Satsuki, your new team manager, and from now on I will be the one to watch your progress and brief you on our opponents whenever the coach isn't around and sometimes even when he is. This I will do aside from the usual managerial obligations, of course, which by the way do NOT include being your water girl, just so you know." She's amiable enough but it almost sounds like a threat.

Which is why he jumps when she turns to look at him

"Kagami-kun" she starts, and he has a really bad feeling about this "don't worry about losing to_**him **_there's absolutely no shame in that, your form was good" and Kagami can just hear the _"I want to see if you can do better" _that goes unsaid.

He is simultaneously offended and ridiculously flattered, but he's not quite sure what would be the appropriate verbal response to that so he just nods.

His performance shuts everyone up this time too, but for very difference reasons.

-o-o-o-o-o-

If Kagami went to any other school, he'd probably be seen as a big damn genius. This is Aomine's assessment of him after their one-on-one. He's got the form of someone who's been playing basketball a while, aggressive plays that would make most players panic, but makes all the mistakes of someone who doesn't know their own strength. Basically, as far as Aomine's concerned, he has no idea what he's doing. It occurs to Aomine, that it might be entertaining to cultivate the hidden talent that he's pretty sure is there and then see what happens, but at the same time, he's pretty sure Kagami couldn't beat him no matter how much he improved so it probably isn't worth the effort.

He'll admit Kagami's different though.

Losing might have shut him up, but as embarrassed as he might have felt (and it was plain to see on his face that he was pretty damn embarrassed), Kagami didn't seem devastated in the least (as is the usual reaction), and that was… _**something**_, Aomine guesses. Not that it even really matters.

"Lazing on the roof again?"

"Satsuki, go bother someone else" he groans "I'm trying to sleep"

Momoi Satsuki is rarely the type to be ordered around, by Aomine especially, so she ignores his words and sits beside him. "The rest of the first years are pretty interesting, two of them especially. They're both in your class, Sakurai Ryou's really good at three pointers, and well you've met Kagami already" she pauses "I wonder why he's two days late, according to his records he spent his last year of middle school _**here. **_You'd think he'd start the school year with the rest of us right?"

It figures that Satsuki's researching and cataloging him already. He rolls to his side so his back's facing her "Isn't it _**your **_job to know that?"

"It is" is what she says, but _"I was trying to get you to tell me what you think about him"_ is what he hears.

"He's ok" he says, because he knows she won't leave him alone if he didn't "Needs some work, but he's ok"

He hears her huff (in a way that suspiciously sounds like _"I thought so"_).

"You're lucky we were just assessing the rest of the freshmen today—" she says"—or Wakamatsu-sempai would have blown a fuse again"

"Please" Aomine scoffs "As if I care what HE thinks, the bastard"

"You should still come to practice"

"Should—but won't"

"Even if I told you Kagamin is more than he seems?"

He actually turns to look at her at that, an eyebrow raised.

_"KagaMIN?" _he says incredulously.

She has this annoyingly smug look on her face, like she knows something he doesn't.

"Michael Jordan" she says, patting his shoulder as she moves to get up "There's your clue"

"Ugh" he turns back to his side "Not wasting my time with that"

"Come to practice!" is all Satsuki says in reply and then she's closing the door shut.

-o-o-o-o-o-

The next day Aomine skips morning practice, and isn't at afternoon practice either.

He's also missed half their classes after he asked to go to the nurse's office in the middle of fourth period. Kagami hasn't known him for that long but he's pretty sure he's skipping (cause no way in hell would he be sick). Their team manager—err, Momoi-san, asks him and Sakurai if she knows where he is. Sakurai tells her "He's in the infirmary, I'm sorry!" while Kagami eyes him funnily trying to figure out why the kid finds it so necessary to apologize about _**EVERYTHING**_.

"Kagami-kun, would you please go get him? I need to meet with Coach Harasawa" (2)

Kagami's initial reaction is irritation and he makes a face to show it. He's about to wonder _"Why me?" _aloud but remembers that he's probably the only freshman who isn't too intimidated to at least _**talk**_ to Aomine so he relents (and ok, Momoi just gave him a look, and she's kind of scary so he doesn't want to push her buttons).

He finds Aomine sleeping on one of the beds.

"Oi wake up, they're asking for you at practice"

Aomine doesn't even twitch, Kagami tries shaking him.

"Team manag—uh, Momoi-san seems really annoyed, you should really just get your ass down there to the gym"

Still nothing—this is starting to piss Kagami off.

He shouts "WAKE UP YOU BASTARD!" and he kicks the bed so hard Aomine actually falls off.

"WHAT THE FU—" and he's awake. Good.

Aomine sits up rubbing the back of his head and sees Kagami standing there glaring at him.

"Are you fucking CRAZY?" he screams "If I got injured, you would have been as good as kicked out of the team you shit!"

Kagami scoffs "Please—" he crosses his arms "—idiots don't get injured"

Aomine looks at him like he's stupid "That's not even—what the fuck are you doing here?"

"Like I said, they're asking for you at practice"

Aomine makes a disgusted face "No" he says getting up and crawling back into bed "I don't have time for that, I have plans"

"What!? All you're going to do is _**NAP**_!"

"Exactly"

Kagami groans, long and exasperated, then starts pulling at Aomine's uniform. "I'm taking you with me whether you like it or not you bastard"

Aomine grabs his right hand, glares, and Kagami stops moving altogether. Everything about Aomine screams _"Go away" _right now and Kagami doesn't want to admit it but the look he's being given is freaking him out.

"Whatever" he growls, shaking off Aomine's grip "Don't blame me if you get scolded"

Aomine snorts and turns away from him. Kagami lingers for a moment to glare at his back, then stalks away in a huff.

When he gets back to the gym all Momoi-san says about the lack of Aomine is "Oh good, he didn't punch you" and nothing else. He feels as if he's being manipulated into something, but he has no clue what.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Wakamatsu (a center and regular of the team, otherwise known as the tall blond second year who_**did **_curse Aomine during Kagami's first day) is loud pretty much all the time and is as easily pissed off as he is excitable. This Kagami learns after just a week on the Touou basketball team. Aomine hasn't come to morning practice for all of that week, and has only dropped by once for afternoon practice, not that Kagami particularly cares what the bastard does; it's just that Wakamatsu-sempai has graciously been loudly reminding them of this fact on a daily basis.

Right now his sempai is loudly asking him "How is it possible to eat that much!?" as he eats all the sandwiches he bought from the convenience store on the way to school.

They've just finished morning practice and are all eating their breakfast on the stage, and it's too early for Kagami's mind to process Japanese as quickly as he ought.

Since "Uhmm" is all he can say with his mouth full anyway, that's what he does. Wakamatsu continues to look at him like he's a new wonder of the world. He can see Sakurai gawk at him with great interest from the corner of his eye and he wonders if it really is so surprising that he can eat this much.

"I eat a normal amount" Kagami says after he swallows

"For a whale maybe—"Wakamatsu's nose is scrunching up in mild disgust, but his face shows bewilderment "—where does it even go?"

Kagami just grunts, what is even the point of these questions? Attempting to veer things away from him and his food he asks "Is Aomine really ok not coming to practice?"

The incredibly loud angry growl (it's more of a roar really, geez, Kagami feels like his eardrums are going to burst) that Wakamatsu releases makes Kagami immediately regret asking that particular question.

"That bastard really gets on my nerves!"

_'Yeah well, that's true for a lot of people'_ Kagami thinks.

"He always acts like he's better than everyone!"

And it's at that point of Wakamatsu's rant that Imayoshi decides to step in.

"Calm down Wakamatsu" he says, admonishing "It doesn't matter if he's arrogant if he gets results. And anyway, you have to admit he has the right to be high and mighty, Aomine's… _**different**_."

Kagami thinks that's a gross understatement but leaves it alone because their captain was probably trying to be vague on purpose. Just saying outright that Aomine _**is **_better than all of them when it comes to basketball wasn't going to help anyone. Frankly hearing it out loud from another person would have pissed Kagami off too.

Especially since Aomine seems to have zero fucks to give.

Aomine seems to think there's nobody out there who could ever beat him, probably why he thinks he can afford not to give a damn. Kagami however, begs to differ. What a small word Aomine must live in, if he can't find a single person capable of beating him. Even the best NBA players lose sometimes, because there'll always be someone stronger, and because they're human, so they _**do**_in fact, make mistakes. Kagami refuses to believe Aomine's basketball is really that perfect.

After Imayoshi's interruption the gym quiets down to idle chatter as they all finish their breakfast before hitting the showers to get ready for class.

Later at afternoon practice, there is still no sign of Aomine.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

**End Notes:**

**(1)** I have a friend who can speak in Japanese (and lived in Japan for a while), and while watching Kuroko no Basuke together, she commented that the way Kagami talks is extremely rude, and that nobody actually talks like that in real life ever.  
**(2)** Just having her call him "coach" felt weird SO


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

That Aomine was actually present for practice should have been Kagami's first clue. Instead he'd just assumed that he, by some miracle, was feeling like practicing for once. The restlessness of the entire team should have been his second clue. Unfortunately he wasn't really paying attention. But when they're called to gather after practice and Momoi-san and Imayoshi-sempai stand beside him (and therefore among the players) instead of next to Coach Harasawa, he finally figures out that there's going to be an important announcement today. And when he sees the jerseys next to coach on the bench, he realizes just what that announcement is going to be.

It actually completely slipped Kagami's mind that this was going to happen. He regrets, momentarily, that he didn't ask about it, but figures, few people here could best him, so he'd definitely be made a starter anyway.

"I'll be calling the last names of our five starters for our first game" coach says "Imayoshi, Susa, Wakamatsu—" the coach pauses while Wakamatsu-sempai exclaims _"yes!" _in joy, seemingly expecting the outburst "—Aomine, and lastly—"

Ok, so far all the names called are what Kagami expected. He should get the last slot right?

"Sakurai"

"…_what…"_ Kagami just stands there stunned for a moment, _"I'm not going to play!?"_ he thinks, outraged. He opens his mouth about to question the line-up, but he feels a tug on his wrist and sees Momoi-san looking at him and shaking her head.

Kagami looks at her, confused at first, then angry _"Did she know?" _he thinks_ "Is that why she stood beside me?"_

"We'll talk once everyone's gone" she says, loud enough for only the two of them to hear.

Her stern look stops him for a moment.

He looks to his other side. He sees briefly that Sakurai's looking at him, but then their eyes meet, and Sakurai hastily turns away in shock. Kagami even hears the kid mutter _"I'm sorry"_ and, even if Sakurai apologizes for just about fucking everything, he feels that this time, he might mean it _**more**_.

And while that pisses him off a little, he, at the same time, realizes that he doesn't really want to make a scene of this (anymore than it has already become a scene, Momoi isn't really being very discrete) and look like a sore loser, so turns back to Momoi he nods.

Afterwards when they're given their jerseys, receiving his doesn't make Kagami feel any better. Especially not when Sakurai keeps throwing him a look that's a mix of fear and guilt, and when Momoi's staring him down to make sure he doesn't have any wild reactions.

He never expected that he wouldn't be able to play, it always seemed like the natural progression of things and… now he really wishes he'd asked about it earlier. He could have _**done **_something. Then again… it's not as if it _**doesn't**_ make sense that Sakurai is a starter… still…

Immediately after coach dismisses them, and everyone starts dispersing, Momoi turns to Kagami.

"I'll wait till after you get changed, we can talk when everyone's gone" she says

Kagami frowns, but nods. He wonders if she has an entire speech prepared, did she know this would happen and because of that, made a speech specifically designed to calm him down? The idea makes him feel pathetic, but that's what it's looking like. And since the coach isn't the one doing the explaining to him, it means he isn't quite important enough to the team either. And that just… it makes him feel pathetic.

He tries not to let his feelings show in the showers and while he's changing, but he can't help the scowl that graces his face when he sees Momoi after he steps out of the locker room.

She's sitting on a bench and pats the space beside her.

Kagami's steps as he walks towards her are sluggish, and he tries not to look her way cause he knows whatever expression she has on will just piss him off.

When he finally gets there Aomine's talking to Momoi saying "I'll be heading home first then", and it makes him look.

Then, he sees the _**weirdest **_expression pass Momoi's face when she says "Ok".

It's—well there's no word to describe it except sad. But… sad about what?

The look disappears quickly, and Kagami is left to wonder if he just imagined it.

"Ah, Kagami-kun" Momoi says as she turns to him "Let's wait till everyone leaves and then you should walk me home so we can talk"

"Walk you—ah" this was a thing here, right "Ok"

He sits beside her, and they silently wait for the gym to clear out. About a minute after the last guy leaves, she stands up, grabs her bag, turns to Kagami and says "Alright then, lets head out"

She doesn't say more till they're five minutes away from school.

"The truth is, the last spot was really between you and Sakurai—" she starts "—but the coach didn't think you were quite ready yet, and that you need lots of improvement. I thought the same."

"Bu—" Kagami starts to object, but Momoi raises a hand and stops him.

"I have a… talent" she continues "The data I get on players is very _detailed_, I can also predict how much a player will improve. It's why I was sort of the 'insurance' of the team at Teikou"

There it is again, _Teikou_, as if it's supposed to mean something to him. Kagami should ask about it later. For the moment, he assumes, from the way Aomine's kind of a big deal, that this _"talent"_of Momoi's is the real deal.

"I think you have lots of potential, but I also think that something is holding you back" she looks at him when she says this "I don't know what it is, but it feels like it'll impede on your improvement"

"I don't know what you're talking about" he doesn't, _he doesn't_

Momoi eyes him warily "I think you do, and just refuse to acknowledge it"

Kagami looks away.

"I'm not saying you should get over it, but you should look for something to motivate you"

"What I really need—" Kagami says, obviously irked "—is to play a _**real **_game and prove myself"

"I thought you'd say that" she replies with a sigh "And maybe you do but we can't take a chance with a player who isn't a sure thing"

"I'm not a sure thing?" he says, offended

"You get angry easily and it affects your performance, sure it doesn't show as much during practice, but it'll make our team's overall performance suffer if it happens during an _**'real' **_game. Especially if it's a game against one of the Generation of Miracles."

She sees Kagami's confused look and adds "Aomine's old teammates in Teikou?"

Kagami grunts "Everyone keeps saying that like it's supposed to mean something, _**Teikou.**_ And I hear _Generation of Miracles _a lot too but I never know what the hell everyone is talking about and why its such a big deal" he scowls at his feet.

"Oh" Momoi actually sounds surprised "Well, when I found out you had your last year of middle school her I'd thought…" she trails off

"Well I _**don't **_know"

She nods "Uhm well… There was this middle school, which, for three years in a row, won the national championships, that school was Teikou" she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, and fidgets slightly "The five starters, plus an unfortunately lesser known sixth man, were called the_'Generation of Miracles'_. They're regarded as geniuses, this assessment of them is pretty much spot on. Aomine-kun is called their _'ace' _because he always got the most points. They're all amazing in their own right, as you are now, you'd be beaten in a second."

Kagami growls "You didn't have to add that last part"

"Yes I did" she actually laughs a little "You'd have gotten ideas, you seem the type" she stops walking "Well, this is my stop. Get some sleep, who knows, you might get subbed in tomorrow"

"Hnh" is all Kagami says in reply, and then he waits until she gets in her house before he leaves.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Kagami's got a mild headache, and Momoi frowning at him first thing in an already terrible morning is just making it worse.

"You haven't gotten any sleep" she says accusingly, arms crossed, left foot tapping incessantly.

All he can muster in reply is "Mmmrghh"

"_If she knows, she can't possibly expect him to be coherent right?"_

She raises an eyebrow at him and he groans. _"Apparently she does"_

"I was thinking about what you said and how I could maybe still play today, and it just… kind of… kept me up all night…"

"It's cute how you can't sleep when you're excited but—"

"_**Cute**_?"

"—I'm not sure we can sub you in at this rate."

"_**WHAT!? **_But I'm _**fine**_!" Kagami leans in "See! Look! Perfectly awake!"

Momoi gives him a quick once over. His eyes are red but he's not struggling to keep them open at least. His eye bags are distressingly dark, but his body language is screaming that he's raring to go.

She sighs "Well you're on time at least…" she peeks at her phone in her pocket, no new messages "…unlike _**some **_people"

Kagami gives her a bewildered look and she waves her hand dismissing the silent inquiry.

"Most of the team's in the locker room already, go and get settled"

Kagami pauses, eyeing her suspiciously for another moment, before finally nodding and heading off.

Looking at her phone again, she mutters "Where _**are **_you?"

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

When Kagami enters the locker room, he greets the team good morning and promptly proceeds to look around for a spot to place his bag on. His quick scan of the room however, rather than finding himself a spot, gives him a startling realization instead.

Aomine isn't here.

"_Strange"_ he thinks _"The game's in a few minutes"_.

"Kagami-kun" and, wow that's the _**Coach**_, Kagami didn't realize that Coach has never actually directly addressed him until now when he's disoriented about how strange it is hearing his voice say his name.

"Uhm, yes?" it's kind of embarrassing how that came out but Kagami's a little bit confused as to why this is happening and why Aomine isn't here and—

"Warm-up"

—and… huh? _"Does this mean what I think it means"_

"I—uh…" Kagami's rarely been startled into silence in his life, he's getting to play this _**early**_? "Yes…..sir"

Coach nods as if dismissing him, and then Kagami proceed to get dressed. As he's adjusting his shorts, he hears Wakamatsu stomping and grumbling about Aomine being a _"late bastard"_.

He frowns, as a thought sinks in to him _"I'm only playing because _**he's **_not here" _and well, he _**knew**_ he was only going to get to play if something like this happened but… It makes him feel a little… _**inadequate**_ (and silly for ever being excited, if he was going to be honest).

"_Whatever" _he thinks, shaking his head _"I'm gonna get to play, that's all that matters"_

Five minutes later when he's stretching, Momoi barges into the locker room.

"He replied" she says, addressing the whole room "He woke up late but he's on his way, he'll be here in time for the end of the first quarter."

"Good" Coach says, and then he turns to Kagami "Kagami-kun, you'll play until he arrives"

The word _inadequate_ rings in his mind again but he swallows the negative feelings, and nods.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

His own heart beat is loud in his ears and he feels his pulse all throughout his body. It's a bad sign. He's probably pushing it, over pacing himself. He doesn't care.

Just a few minutes left—_**just a few minutes**_till that bastard gets here and he gets subbed out.

He's going to damn well make the best of it.

The game started just three minutes ago but they're already twelve points ahead: a three pointer from Imayoshi, a two from Susa, two threes from Sakurai, a dunk from Wakamatsu, and two dunks and a layup from Kagami.

Their opponents don't stand a chance.

When Kagami first joined the team he'd thought that there was something up with the Touou, and playing alongside them now, he's sure of it.

This team's offensive power is _**insane**_.

They've been in possession of the ball almost the entire game so far. It helps that Imayoshi's a good captain; he's smart, allows everyone to do their own thing but tempers everyone as subtly as possible.

The challenge in this team, he realizes won't (just) be playing against other teams. In fact that might be the least of his worries. Judging by his current status on the team, his bigger challenge is definitely climbing up the ranks.

So right now, in his limited time to shine, he doesn't give a _**shit **_if he looks like a selfish player. He's just going to do his thing, get so far ahead that when Aomine does finally show up, he'll see they don't really need him. That'll shut everyone up.

"_I can _**do this**" he repeats in his head like a mantra.

Wakamatsu gets a defensive rebound, passes it to Susa, who passes it to Sakurai who gets yet another three pointer as he screams "I'm sorry!" thoroughly distracting their opponents while simultaneously kicking their ass.

Kagami has to hand it to the kid, there's definitely a good reason he was made a starter. Kind of annoying that he's effectively scored more points than him now but heck nothing he can't fix.

Ball's in their possession again pretty quickly, and Kagami takes it to his advantage. He does another layup, gets a foul in the process but it's not like he's going to stay long enough in the game for that to really matter anyway.

He's wiping his sweat away with his jersey when he hears loud murmurs from the crowd and a "fucking finally" from Wakamatsu.

Coach calls for a time out. Kagami turns towards where he is to protest, thinking that the time out was called because of his foul, but then he sees him.

Aomine, all suited up and ready to go.

"Good job" Aomine says mockingly as Kagami approaches the bench.

Kagami glares at him, refusing to give him the satisfaction of a verbal reply.

Aomine smirks at him "Sit tight and watch how a big boy plays".

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Sixty points, sixty _**fucking **_ 's how much Aomine scored in the game.

Kagami gets, much to his utter frustration, why everyone just allows Aomine to do whatever he wants. He doesn't just get results, he gets _**damn good **_results. And while, something just doesn't sit right with him (like how he can't decide if their opponents were actually trying less after Aomine arrived, or if Aomine is just that good), he has to admit, that it has yet again been affirmed, that Aomine is the real deal.

He's not going to become a starter at this rate, not unless he works his butt off to do something about it.

The only way up is to be the best at what you do.

It's the basic rule of thumb of the Touou basketball team, well, if you could call them that, what with how individualistic their plays usually are.

"You know," Kagami says solemnly, as they're dressing to leave in the locker room. "it doesn't really feel like we're a team."

Sakurai, who he'd directed the statement at, is gaping at him, as if he was unsure if Kagami was really talking to _**him. **_Looking around, and deciding Kagami couldn't be talking to anyone else (because he barely ever did anyway). Sakurai cautiously answers "Uhm, yeah…" and in a smaller voice "I'm sorry…"

Kagami's about to flat-out ask him _"Why the heck do you keep apologizing?"_ when Sakurai adds "Ah, but it doesn't feel like we'll lose—" he shrugs "—I know I don't really have anything to base this on but…."

Kagami nods in agreement.

"Yeah" he says, and it pisses him off that Aomine crosses his mind "I know what you mean"

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Sakurai's bento was a wonder. The beef patties were made to look like a bear, the sausages like octopuses, heck even the diced potatoes and cherry tomatoes had a HEART sticking out of them. In short it was the cutesiest meal Kagami has ever seen.

He's looking at it in wonder as he eats his own convenience store bought bento, and wonders, if all that cutesy food tastes as good as they look.

Wakamatsu, who seems to be on the same wavelength as Kagami on the matter, leans in to look at Sakurai's bento properly.

"Wow that… uh that's cute" he says looking kind of confused.

"Huh?" Sakurai replies between chews

"Did you take your little sister's by mistake?" ok maybe he wasn't on the same wavelength as Kagami. A good question though, and it makes Kagami lean in a little to hear Sakurai's answer.

Sakurai looks a little beet sheepish when he says "Oh, I'm sorry! But uh, I made it myself so I doubt I'd—"

"You made it yourself!?"

Sakurai seems shocked at Wakamatsu's surprise, but before he can reply, a new voice cuts in.

"Hey, that looks good" then suddenly there's a hand reaching for Sakurai's sausages, making both him and Wakamatsu jump.

Kagami looks up to see Aomine eating a sausage and looming over a now very nervous looking Sakurai.

"Aomine" says Wakamatsu, in a surprisingly tame voice.

Aomine looks up, as if seeing him just for the first time "Oh, hey" he says offhandedly, sausage sticking out of his mouth.

"Where have you been?" Wakamatsu demands "You can't just skip practice for no reason! You're coming to practice this afternoon right?"

Aomine laughs "You _**can't**_ be serious" he says, then turns to Sakurai and starts picking at his bento again "Hey that was good. Gimme the rest of it"

Poor Sakurai looks both nervous and a little frightened. "Huh? But this is…"

"Huh?" Aomine's voice and expression are both clearly irked

Sakurai jumps again, then looks away "I'm sorry! Uh, go ahead…"

And while Aomine takes this as cue to further invade Sakurai's personal space, Wakamatsu's face flares up in anger. He looks like he's about to shout, but Kagami cuts in.

"Hey" he says loudly, glaring at Aomine.

Aomine turns to him, looks at him with a bored look and a raised eyebrow.

"If you want your own bento you should just buy your own"

"Huh?" Aomine stands straight "That shit isn't as good as this" he pops another sausage into his mouth

"Why you—"

"It's ok Kagami-kun," Sakurai hurriedly cuts in "—uhm, I'll just try making more from now on…"

"Oh really?" Aomine says, annoyingly delighted

"Don't!" both Kagami and Wakamatsu shout

"Ugh, would you both just shut—"

"_**I'll**_make your bento"

"—huh?"

Everyone's looking at Kagami like he's gone insane, and maybe he has, but Aomine is clearly not going to bring food on his own, and Sakurai was clearly going to allow himself to be bullied into making him a bento. So better that _**he**_ step up because at least he's going to call Aomine on_**some**_ of his bullshit.

"Kagami _**don't**_" Wakamatsu says seriously, grabbing him by the shoulders

Kagami keeps his gaze level.

He doesn't see the point in fighting the system like Wakamatsu does, especially when a player like Aomine sits on top of it. It pisses him off that the guy's high and mighty sure, but they're three games into the Inter-high preliminaries, so he's seen firsthand what the bastard can do. It's obvious to him he's not going to get anywhere by screaming in protest. Besides—he hates to admit it, but sometimes… sometimes Aomine scares him still. He can't _**really **_talk back right now, especially not when he's still so fucking weak in comparison.

Aomine chuckles "Alright, let's see if your bento's any good tomorrow at lunch" he jumps down from the stage where everyone's been eating "Now if you excuse me I'm going to go read my Horikita Mai-chan book, so I'm gonna be off " he waves "Practice hard"

"Wait Aomine!" releasing Kagami, Wakamatsu runs to intercept Aomine's path

Immediately Kagami knows this is a bad idea, based on the alarmed look on Sakurai's face, he thinks so too.

Wakamatsu grabs the front of Aomine's shirt "Enough already! I'm telling you now, _**go to practice!**_"

Aomine looks at him, and… it's that look. The one that silenced Kagami for a moment during their one-on-one, the one that made him leave Aomine in the infirmary, it's… there's something there that Kagami can't explain, an intensity that's beyond just an aura of someone who can and is used to succeeding, almost as if Aomine thinks himself a god of basketball. But, well that isn't quite right either, it's as if… he's angry, like _**really **_angry about something, he doesn't know what. Ugh this guy's making Kagami's head ache.

"I'll forgive you once." Aomine says, low, monotonous, his voice distressingly tight. "Let me go."

"Wh—"Wakamatsu doubles over as Aomine knees him in the stomach.

The action makes Imayoshi and Susa are stand, most of the others are just looking on in shock, Kagami included.

"Aomine!" Imayoshi shouts, admonishingly.

"I told him I'd do it" replies Aomine, as if it's no big deal. He starts walking towards the basketballs laying around near one of the rings they use for practice. "Practice, _**practice**_" he scoffs "Don't make me laugh!"

He sets down his book, stands up and shouts "Ryou!"

'_First name basis so soon?'_ Kagami grimaces, _'He's a presumptuous bastard too.'_

"How many points did I score last game?" Aomine asks, sounding almost playful.

"Huh?" Sakurai pauses a second "Uh, 82 points."

And then, as if on cue, Aomine runs towards the basket, dribbling of course, _**ridiculously**_ fast as usual, and he dunks so hard the ring breaks off from the backboard.

The sound of it breaking echoes throughout the now quiet gymnasium.

The expressions on the team's faces are varying: panic, surprise, _**disappointment**_. But they are all commonly quiet, which makes Aomine's laugh louder, more sinister.

"Oh? I did it again" that's the third one if Kagami remembers right, Aomine's been going to practice at least once a week since the preliminaries have started, and each time he's broken a ring.

Aomine chuckles again.

Beside him, Kagami hears Sakurai gulp.

Aomine looks at them, grinning, and exclaims "I don't think you can practice with this thing!"

It sounds like he's mocking them all.

"Uh… what was I trying to say again?" Aomine asks himself "Oh right" he throws the ring in his hands aside.

"You can talk to me once you're better than me." He says, as he starts walking out of the gym "Not that you'll ever be"

Imayoshi approaches Wakamatsu who's still doubled over, as the rest of them stare at Aomine's wake.

"Are you ok Wakamatsu? Sorry about that"

"Why are you apologizing Captain!?"

Imayoshi smiles at him "You're not wrong, but don't say anything else to Aomine. Meritocracies are hardly unusual."

"BUT—!"

"Do you know the golfer Tiger Woods?" Imayoshi asks, turning to give Aomine's back one last look, as he disappears through the exit.

"Huh?" Wakamatsu is so stunned by the question he reels down from his frustration.

"What about Shaq?"

"Uhm, you mean Shaquille O'Neal?"

"Yup. Tiger won a lot of games by hitting the ball too far, so they extended the course and added regulations to keep him from driving so far. Shaq, too. He was too strong so there was a drastic increase of rough play just to stop him. That's why they made the no-charge zone, so offense wouldn't be charged with fouls._" _He pats Wakamatsu on the shoulder "Our freshmen over there have the right idea, you shouldn't go too far with Aomine. In the world of sports, sometimes when a single player is too strong, they change the rules. They're not common, but they really do exist. They're unfairly strong, _**monsters**_ if you will_._"

"_Huh"_ Kagami thinks _"Spot on"_

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

**A/N: **Self-editing is so tiring, I spot new mistakes no matter how much I reread... maybe I should get a beta... As many of you might have noticed, the last part of this chapter is actually a variation of a scene from canon, I used the anime (E15, HorribleSubs ver) dialogue but edited them as was necessary. [side note: how does one even write basketball matches omg]


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Sorry it took a while (finals week, etc. etc.) but here's the next part. Also thanks for the feedback guys! I really appreciate it.

**-o-o-o-**

"Here's your bento" Kagami pulls his seat in front of Aomine's desk, and sets down his homemade lunch as he sits himself across of him "I forgot to ask what you liked so I just made whatever"

"I'll eat anything" Aomine says as he opens his bento "Croquettes. What kind?"

"Chicken"

Aomine frowns "For future reference I prefer beef"

Kagami thinks he's popping a vein.

Meanwhile Aomine's popping a croquette into his mouth "This is good" he says, surprised.

Kagami huffs "Of course it is"

Aomine audibly swallows his food and inspects his bento further "This all looks great, but didn't you make too much?"

"If you can't finish it all I'll eat them for you" Kagami says, as he sets down his own bento onto Aomine's desk "I ate some of mine after morning practice so I probably won't have enough anymore"

"Just what kind of food monster** are** you" there's a disgusted look on Aomine's face that's grating on Kagami's nerves

"Shut up" he growls "_You're_ the one who was bullying Sakurai into making you a bento"

Aomine snorts "I wasn't bullying anyone"

"_This guy's not even self-aware is he"_ Kagami clenches his jaw.

"Yes" he says, through gritted teeth "you we're"

Rolling his eyes Aomine simply replies with "Whatever" and continues eating.

Kagami scowls at him for about a minute more before deciding he shouldn't waste his time with the guy and just start eating his own lunch. Glancing to his left, he sees Sakurai looking at them with what seems to be a mix of interest and horror. And… he doesn't seem to be the only one.

Everyone in class is gawking at them, morbid curiosity on their faces.

Some of them look away when they see Kagami narrowing his eyes, but a lot of them are just openly staring. Kagami doesn't know what the big deal is but apparently what they're doing right now is strange.

"Why are people staring…" he mutters

"It's probably because you have so much food" Aomine replies in between chews

"It's not like this is the first time they've seen me eat like this." Kagami huffs "It must be because I'm hanging around you."

"…Why would that make them stare at us?"

"Well… you're _you_"

"Are you stupid? That's not an answer"

"Of course it is Mr. I'm-a-Big-Deal"

"Nobody calls me that"

"That's not the point!"

"What? How is it— You know what never mind" Aomine points at his bento with his chopsticks "Talking with you is tiring so I'm just gonna eat"

Kagami's about to protest but Aomine seems bent on ignoring him for the rest of lunch period, so all he ends up saying is "Fine" before resuming with his own meal.

Their classmates don't stop watching them.

It's… unnerving.

Kagami's pretty sure he was right in saying its Aomine's fault. He remembers the first time he ate lunch in their classroom, tons of people did a double take, one or two even asked him about how much he normally ate. But after a week they were pretty much used to it. He hasn't gotten attention again until today, and the only thing different with today is that he's eating with Aomine.

"Knock, knock!" Momoi's voice is perky, and there's a skip in her step as she walks into their classroom "Oh, hello Sakurai-kun" she says cheerfully as she passes him by. Kagami notices that everyone is gawking at _her _now.

"I hear you made Aomine-kun lunch, Kagami-kun" she says cheerfully as she parks herself next to Aomine's desk

"Uh…" Kagami hopes it isn't too pathetic (or obvious on his face for that matter) that he thinks her smile right now is creepy "…yeah…"

"It's actually pretty good!"

It's really good to hear that Aomine had so little confidence Kagami's cooking would be any good.

"Oh?" Momoi positions her hand above a tempura in Kagami's bento "May I?"

"_Why are you so happy!?"_ Kagami wants to shout, "Sure" he says instead.

Momoi helps herself and her face lights up the moment the tempura's in her mouth.

"You're right, it's great!" she says, excitedly turning to Aomine

"_**Right**_?" Aomine replies, as if _he _was the one who cooked the bento

"You should do something for Kagami-kun in return"

"_**Huh**_?" It's clear from the look on Aomine's face, that he believes that to be the worst idea on earth "Why would I have to do that? He _**volunteered**_, I didn't ask him to do anything"

"Exactly!" Momoi huffs "Kagami-kun is doing this out of the goodness of his heart, you should repay him!"

"Whaaat, are you kidding me?" Aomine looks really, _really _against the idea.

If Momoi is asking for a heartfelt thank you gesture, Kagami thinks she's asking the wrong person.

"Aomine-kun" Momoi says admonishingly, before turning to Kagami and saying "Go on Kagami-kun ask for anything"

He pauses for a moment, startled at being asked directly. He then settles for the first thing that comes to mind.

"How about we have one-on-ones this Saturday?"

"That's a great idea!" Momoi exclaims

"What? That's boring!" Aomine whines "You're just going to lose all the time"

"I will not!" a baseless assumption

Momoi loudly claps her hands together and says "In any case it's settled" then, looking at Aomine, she pointedly adds "See you _both_ at afternoon practice"

She leaves before Aomine can protest, so he's left scowling in her wake.

"Aren't you going to finish those?" Kagami asks

Aomine glares at him before he starts eating again, indignantly.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

"Did you really make Aomine a bento?" Wakamatsu asks Kagami at afternoon practice, while Kagami's busy practicing shooting "Sakurai said you did, but I wanted to be _**completely **_sure"

Kagami raised an eyebrow at him "Wouldn't asking Aomine be the best way to be sure?"

"He doesn't like me"

"You mean _**you**_don't like _**him**__"_

"It's the same thing!"

"_It's really not"_ Kagami thinks.

"Look just answer the question" Wakamatsu says impatiently

Kagami sighs, dribbles a ball "Yeah, I made him one"

"And you ate lunch with him?"

He takes position— "Yeah" —and shoots.

Wakamatsu's quiet for a moment. Kagami makes a few more shots, misses most of them. He really needs to work on his three pointers.

"Why do you put up with him?" the question throws Kagami off and he misses terribly.

Is that what it looks like? That he's putting up with Aomine?

"I'm not letting him have _**everything **_he wants" he replies "I mean he doesn't have the right to be an asshole, let's be clear, but I also don't think I have the right to call him on it…**.**_**yet**_. Like he said, we can talk once we're better than him. We just sound like sore losers otherwise."

There's more silence after that. It lasts so long Kagami actually has to check if Wakamatsu just up and left him there hanging.

He turns to see him still there, expression utterly dumbfounded.

"What?" Kagami asks, uneasy

"You think you can beat him?" Wakamatsu says, deathly serious, and uncharacteristically soft.

"Well not if I just stop trying" he huffs "I'll accept he's pretty amazing, but not that he's _'the best and that's that'_."

"Nobody else on this team seems to think so" Wakamatsu huffs "Even Captain runs on the assumption that Aomine can't be beat"

Kagami snorts "That's ridiculous."

"Hah, I think so too." Wakamatsu's face turns a little sad "But you know, back in middle school, they really _**were**_something, the _Generation of Miracles_ I mean" he grunts "It's annoying, but a lot of people really did stop trying. Everyone just thought, _'we can't win, what's the point?'._"

Kagami frowns "But it's_**better**_ if you can't win"

"Huh?" Wakamatsu gives him a bewildered look.

He shrugs "I thought I'd jumped the gun when I came back here to play, but when Aomine beat me in that one-on-one, as embarrassed and pissed off as I felt… to be honest I also found it encouraging. I mean, life is all about challenges right? No point in living if there isn't anyone strong to play, it's _**better**_if I can't win"

Wakamatsu actually _laughs_ and the sound is so startling (because of its _rarity_) that everyone in the gym actually turns to look at them.

"You're weird" he says, between chuckles "But I'll support you"

Kagami guesses that means he's found an ally, but he's not quite sure for what.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Momoi's the one who sets everything up, the time, the place, she even offers to play referee, and wheedles Kagami into making a bento for all three of them (after Aomine vehemently rejects her suggestion of cooking food for them herself). Kagami detests that he has to get up early on a Saturday to finish up making three lunches, but he's going to get to play one-on-ones with Aomine, and that's decidedly a good thing. He brings a really big jug of iced water (because he's pretty sure he's going to have to share…), and along with the lunches, basketball, and extra clothes, it's a lot to lug along during a commute. Despite this, he actually makes it early to their assigned meeting place.

When he arrives Momoi is already there. She waves at him and gestures towards the space next to her on the bench she's sitting on.

"You're early" he says, as he sets down his things.

"So are you" she replies cheerfully "And you've brought a lot of things along"

"Your fault by the way"

"Hey" she pouts "I offered to cook, but Aomine-kun rejected me!"

"Yeah, why is that?" he looks at her, thoughtful

"I don't know" she shrugs "I don't think my cooking's _that_ bad"

"Wait—so it's _bad_" Momoi slaps his back so hard he almost falls forward

"Mean!" she admonishes, as Kagami shouts "Ow!"

"That hurt!" he complains "_**You **_were the one who said it!"

She huffs "You're not allowed to repeat it!"

"Erggh…" there was no use fighting back here, Kagami concludes "I should warm up"

He pulls out his basketball from its bag and heads for the side of the court directly in front of them. He does stretches for about five minutes before starting off with a dunk.

Minutes pass with just him playing by himself and Momoi silently looking on.

Then, half-way into a jump shot, he hears Momoi growl in frustration and sees her eyeing her cellphone like it's the bane of her existence.

"What's wrong?" he asks as he comes down from his jump.

"He's not replying and it's already thirty minutes past our meet up time!" she responds testily, mashing the buttons of her phone.

"_It is?"_ Kagami walks towards the bench to check his own phone, and to grab a towel.

"Huh, you're right" he shrugs as wipes sweat off his face "Isn't this just like him though?"

She glares at him "That's the _problem_!"

He slinks back a bit before he says "Uh, why don't you message him?"

"I've been doing that!" she groans "But he hasn't been replying _at all."_

"Uhmm…" he doesn't really know how to appease her "Err, want to eat some rice balls while we wait? I made a lot so…"

Momoi glares at her phone for a few seconds more before turning to Kagami with an apologetic smile.

"Sure" she says.

He nods, relieved, and then pulls out a large Tupperware from his bag. He hands it to Momoi and says "Here, take as much as you want, leave some for lunch though"

Momoi mutters a thanks as she receives the container.

Kagami takes one to munch on, before standing once again "I'm just gonna play on my own some more. Don't worry he'll come"

Momoi nods, and starts eating a rice ball, dejectedly.

Kagami starts regretting making plain ones for some reason but shakes the thought off, it's not his problem Momoi's upset that Aomine's being Aomine. He'd heard they were childhood friends, she should know he's like this right? Kagami barely knows the guy but he already expected this of him. It's kind of annoying but what could he do. He'll just give the bastard a piece his mind when he arrives later.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Two hours pass, and Aomine still hasn't arrived, nor has he replied to any messages. Momoi looks like she's about to cry, and Kagami doesn't really know what to do about it. He offers her lunch to cheer her up and she practically attacks it, her expression so very upset as she loudly grumbles about Aomine nonstop.

"Who does he think he _is _that _Ahomine_—"she growls "—you make him lunch and then he does this! That ungrateful moron! How could he stand us up! How could he not even reply to my texts how could he—arggghhh"

She stuffs herself with food aggressively, while Kagami just slowly munches his own food as he stares at her uncomfortably.

"I just—" she covers her face with her hands, and screams _'argggghh' _loudly once again.

Then she stills, and hiccups.

Kagami panics, thinks _"Oh _**shit, **_is she _**crying**_?" _ then accidentally lets go of his chopsticks when he tries to reach out a hand to pat Momoi's shoulder. He hesitates though, so he's just kind of awkwardly reaching out.

When Momoi finally removes her hands from her face, Kagami sees that she is indeed crying.

He doesn't know what to do.

"Dai-chan hates meeeeeeeeeeee" she sobs.

Kagami's confused about who _"Dai-chan" _is for a moment before he remembers Aomine's first name is Daiki.

"I don't think he _hates_ you" he tries to say comfortingly, but it only makes her tackle hug him and cry louder onto his shoulder.

"Kagamiiiiiinnnn" she whines, and ok, she's calling him nicknames now, and he's at a loss at how to deal.

"Uhm, there, there…" He awkwardly pats her back.

It occurs to him he should probably be upset too, but it's kind of hard to be pissed off when Momoi's _this _upset.

"It's not your fault he's an asshole" he says, more firmly this time "Just make him regret it on Monday"

Momoi pulls away from him, still sniffling, but with a determined look on her face "Oh I _will_!"

"What's his deal anyway? He's so—" Kagami waves his hand around " I dunno, _out there,_ I guess. Like he doesn't give a shit about anything, or he's angry about everything…. _**something**_."

Momoi sighs "It's a long story… but I guess you've got all day don't you?"

Kagami shrugs.

She takes a deep breath, "Well then"

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Kagami likes the idea of the old Aomine. Momoi partially described the 'old Aomine' to be '_just like you Kagamin'_, so it might sound a little vain of him to even think this, but the way she talked about him made Aomine seem like he was this really great guy. Kagami can't see much of that guy at all in the Aomine now. Momoi seems to think the old Aomine is still there somewhere, but Kagami really has a hard time picturing how on earth the old Aomine could possibly be somewhere beneath all that assholiness, let alone come back (the later is mostly because, rather begrudgingly, it's come to a point that he has a hard time picturing Aomine losing, at least not against anyone in Japan (and if he's going to be honest, even in most places beyond it)).

It leaves him at the loss on what to do with the information he'd just been given. He was the one who asked yeah, and Momoi was extremely vague about a lot of things, but he still feels like he's been given a burden he never asked for. It seems like an extremely personal matter, and Momoi is passive aggressively trying to get him involved (at least he thinks that's what she's doing, if her eagerness at the prospect of him hanging out in Aomine means anything at all). And the thing is, he doesn't really know how to feel about that.

He doesn't exactly sympathize with Aomine (because there was never a lack of good challenges in America and losing isn't exactly something Kagami's unfamiliar with) but he's not sure he can blame him for reacting the way he did. The guy was still an asshole though, not least because he failed to show up and left Kagami awkwardly trying to comfort an initially annoyed, then devastated, then positively enraged Momoi.

Not exactly what he had in mind for his Saturday.

Sunday night, Momoi texts him if he's going to make Aomine a bento on Monday. He stares at the text for a good minute, and hesitates before replying.

"_Should I?"_ he thinks to himself.

On one hand, Aomine really doesn't deserve it. On the other hand, that Momoi is even asking means she's expecting that he'll make one despite that fact. And Kagami assumes, from the smiling emoticon in her text, that she approves of this.

"_Definitely trying to get me involved"_ he thinks, frowning.

He texts her back a maybe, and decides to sit on the question overnight.

When he wakes up early the next day that is pretty much that. Since he has time, he thinks he might as well make the damn bento. Kagami also figures that feeding Aomine might just let him get away with being snappy (not that he thinks Aomine has the heart to break school rules with violence in front of so many people who _don't_ need him like the basketball team does).

He arrives at school for morning practice earlier than usual. The only people there are the handful of freshmen who haven't completely given up (it was actually pretty discouraging, though Kagami guesses, not very surprising, that the initial overwhelming number of hard-working freshmen dwindled pretty quickly), and the regulars, Aomine included, much to Kagami's surprise (although many of those present are noticeably studiously refusing to fully acknowledge his intimidating presence).

Before he even goes into the locker room to deposit his things, Kagami heads for Aomine, his stride purposeful. His expression is both determined and irked. He's vaguely aware of the fact that half way through his walk, people started staring at him. But their intrigue or panic doesn't interest him, he told himself he'd give Aomine a piece of his mind, and so he damn well will. When he gets there, Aomine's bent over, stretching, unaware of his presence.

"Hey" he says, loud enough to echo in the sparsely occupied gymnasium.

As Aomine stands up straight his expression visibly goes from mildly irritated, to bored.

"Oh" he says, annoyingly disinterested, his eyes flit towards the _furoshiki_ wrapped (1) bentos Kagami's carrying "That for me?"

Kagami ignores the question "Why didn't you show up the other day?" he asks in a tight voice.

"Huuuh?" Aomine looks disappointed at that, he throws his head back slightly to the right, and keeps his gaze away from Kagami, now obviously thoroughly uninterested in this conversation "Satsuki already yelled my ear off about that, fucking let it go already"

Kagami grits his "Why didn't you show up the other day?" he asks again.

Aomine clicks his tongue, then looks at Kagami squarely in the eye, scowl now on his face "Let it go, Taiga"

The use of his first name ticks Kagami off so bad he almost moves to punch Aomine, but is then reminded of just how bad an idea that would be when he hears Imayoshi scream his name. He stops himself, clenches his jaw and glares at Aomine as menacingly as he can.

"Fuck you, you're not getting any bento" he says, before moving to stalk off to the locker room.

"Fine then" Aomine scoffs "Ryou'll give me some bento, right Ryou!?" he shouts

Sakurai audibly squeaks before stuttering "Uh—uhm—I—!"

Kagami growls "Sakurai DON'T YOU DARE"

Sakurai looks incredibly uncomfortable and distressed as he looks back and forth between Kagami and Aomine, unsure of who he should be scared of more.

For a moment, Kagami considers the irony of the situation. He'd been on Aomine's case about bullying Sakurai, yet here he was, essentially bullying the kid into not allowing himself to get bullied. It's simultaneously infuriating and hilarious, and Kagami almost laughs at how ridiculous this situation has become.

"You know what?" he exclaims, in a pitch slightly higher than his normal speaking voice "Fuck it" he crouches down to unfurl the _furoshiki_, pulls out a bento, then pushes it towards Aomine "Here's your stupid fucking lunch asshole, I hope you choke on it"

Kagami then proceeds to tying back the _furoshiki _too tight, stomping his feet as loud as humanly possible on his way to the locker rooms, and slamming the door in a way that clearly said he didn't want to talk to ANYONE.

"_That _**bastard**" Kagami growls once, as he flings his clothes around, haphazardly getting dressed for practice. His mind is **racing**.

"_I've had it with Aomine's stuck-up insensitive attitude._"

"_Did that 'old Aomine' Momoi talked about even really exist?"_

"_Fuck Aomine for being an asshole."_

"_Fuck this team for bending over for him."_

"_Fuck _**ME **_for ever bending over for him."_

"_Wakamatsu was right, I _**WAS **_putting up with him"_

"_Why am I only getting mad just now?"_

"_What the fuck am I even going to do about this?"_

Kagami slams his locker shut, interrupting his own thoughts with the sound. He growls and slams his fist, but is startled to hear a yelp not too far away from him. He turns sharply, scowl still firmly in place.

Sakurai is there by the door, fidgeting, looking as if he had something to say. He'd probably been sent to calm Kagami down.

"Uhm…" Sakurai starts, a little less nervous than Kagami had expected "… Imayoshi-senpai sent me to check if you'd thrashed the place…"

Kagami grunts "Well I haven't". He grabs a towel and his water bottle, and starts moving to leave the locker room.

"Uhm!" Sakurai exclaims, stopping Kagami in his tracks.

He looks at him, an eyebrow raised, expression expectant.

"Uh—" Sakurai scratches the back of his neck, looks at his shoes "—Thank you…"

"For what?"

He looks mildly startled that Kagami doesn't know what he's talking about, he fidgets a little bit more then softly says "For sticking up for me…"

Kagami scoffs "I wasn't really"

Sakurai doesn't say anything in reply but he smiles. It isn't one of those bright super-happy type of smiles, but more like the smile you get when someone does something you're used to, but fond of. Still it was a smile, and it occurs to Kagami that he hasn't actually seen him do that until now.

"Thank you anyway" Sakurai says finally "Do you want help making Aomine's bento?"

Kagami's surprised this offer is even being made, and that Sakurai isn't being at all meek. But, he guesses, Sakurai was probably never meek to begin with, just extremely uncomfortable with people with the intensity of a wild animal.

"Nah" he says "Not right now at least, I might take you up on that offer some other time though"

Sakurai nods with a small smile on his face, and they head out to practice together

* * *

(1) _furoshiki: _large cloth customarily used to wrap bento


	4. Chapter 4

Kagami doesn't precisely avoid Aomine altogether after what the team now calls his _'screaming incident'_, but he does make a point to pretend he's a nonentity, which is difficult considering they're seated next to each other in class. He still makes him lunch but he just dumps the bento onto Aomine's desk (no words, no eye contact, no nothing) before dragging his chair towards Sakurai's desk.

Inevitably, people start staring and whispering things about them behind their back.

Kagami doesn't really care, but Sakurai seems uncomfortable with the inquisitive looks they're getting. He feels a little guilty about that, but then again, it would have been worse if he just sat alone, because he'd have been glaring at everyone (and would have gotten himself riled up) instead of what he's doing now, which is trying to make causal conversation with Sakurai while pretending that Aomine isn't there.

Aomine on his part just busies himself with the food and napping. In other words, he's pretty much the same as usual and is acting as if nothing happened, which really irrationally pisses Kagami off, but he can't exactly snap at someone he's ignoring. So instead he focuses on Sakurai, who, now that he thinks about it, can help him on a dilemma of his that he's been trying to work on for a while.

"I've been practicing three-pointers lately" Kagami says in between chews "I don't know why but I just can't get them right"

"Uhm…" Sakurai looks like he's contemplating for a moment, before he asks "Are you sure your toes are pointing towards the basket when you shoot?"

Kagami frowns "I think so? I'm not sure, sometimes I don't think about it."

Sakurai opens his mouth to say something, but then visibly hesitates.

"Look," Kagami sighs "don't be afraid of me, if what you've got to say is going to improve the way I play I'm going to listen" and when Sakurai gives him a nervous look in reply he adds "If you don't spit it out, I _will_ get angry"

Sakurai nods still looking a bit uncomfortable "Well, uhm…" he starts, fidgeting a little "If your toes _aren't_pointing towards the basket, your form wouldn't even be right so, uhm, it'll be pretty hard to make the shots. Uh, basics, you know?"

Kagami contemplates on that for a moment "Does my form really look that bad?"

"No, but, uhm, from what I've seen it feels like something's missing? Uhm, I could be wrong and it isn't your form, uh, are you sure you're stepping in with your stronger foot first? That helps a lot."

"I—hmm" Kagami pauses "I guess I don't, I mean I usually use my left leg for most of my jumps since I can use my right hand better than my left. Maybe I should do something about _that _too…." He looks at the chopsticks he's gripping in his right hand, frowns, then transfers them to his left.

"_Might as well start now"_ he thinks, and tries to eat some gyozabut utterly fails at picking one up.

"Pfft—" Kagami looks up at the sound and sees Sakurai desperately trying to stifle a laugh.

"I'm sorry" Sakurai says, voice a little stained.

Kagami frowns at him. He then attempts once again to pick up a gyoza…. and fails.

"Arggghhh" he growls in frustration "I AM GOING TO GET THIS RIGHT"

And as if his determination transferred over to his chopsticks, he successfully brings one to his mouth.

"See!" he smirks at Sakurai "Got it right!"

Sakurai nods, small smile on his face "Uhm, maybe you should talk to coach, if you want to know how to improve your shots, I'm sure he'll have better insight for you…"

"I'm planning to, but coach is kind of…" Kagami taps his desk "I dunno, uh _distant_? Uh, no, that's not right really, maybe a little unapproachable, to me at least" he grunts "Sometimes I feel as if he doesn't like me much". Then inwardly, Kagami thinks: _"Or maybe I'm just bitter about not being a starter". _

"He's just very professional" Sakurai assures him "I think he knows you improving would be good for the team so he'd be up to giving you advice, uhm, he's our coach after all so… Ah but if you're really hesitating maybe you should talk to Momoi-san about it first"

Now there was an idea, Kagami was more comfortable with that. "Yeah I think I might do that. Thanks."

Sakurai just smiles and nods in reply, then spends the rest of lunch watching Kagami's attempts to eat his lunch with his much less dextrous hand.

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

He approaches Momoi later that day (after afternoon practice) about his problem and she gives him a _**look**_.

"Coach Harasawa won't bite you, you know" she says, sounding a little bit amused

"I know that!" Kagami growls "But I—"

"But you're not Aomine-kun?"

"That's not it!"

"Really?" Momoi crosses her arms and looks at him skeptically "You don't think losing to him publicly took you down a few notches? And that your sudden elevated eagerness at being better at the one thing you're not very good at has nothing to do with Aomine-kun?"

"NO and NO" Kagami answers indignantly, glaring at her as he says it

"You just—"Momoi seems to struggle with what to say to him, but then seems to hit a blank. She sighs, then says "Why don't you try to focus on being the best at what you _are _good at? With what you seem to want to do, being a jack of all trades won't really help".

She looks at him contemplatively, and adds, in a softer voice, "Although, amazing three pointers might be in your future skill set…"

"Huh?"

She waves a hand "Never mind, I think you should focus first on what you're good at. Though that _'make my left hand more dextrous'_ plan of yours seems reasonable" she pauses "Maybe you should do some lower body training, like the exercises boxers do… hmm…"

She pats him on his shoulder "In any case, you should go see the coach. You weren't subbed in just because you know, I'm sure he'll give you better advice than Sakurai and I have"

"Humph, fine. When's the next game?"

"There's two, this Saturday, the semi-finals and finals for our division." Momoi bites her lip, and then smiles sadly at what seems to be nothing in particular.

Kagami starts thinking about how to ask her what's wrong but she quickly plasters a cheerful look onto her face and beams at Kagami as she says "You'll probably get to play, considering the tight schedule. Isn't that great?"

She pats his shoulder once more and starts walking away "I need to go, tell me how it goes though!"

Kagami grunts, and manages a little wave goodbye. _"What was that about?"_

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

They're eating after morning practice when it happens. Kagami's talking with Sakurai asking about whether or not stylizing his bento adds flavour to it (all the while struggling to eat his own bento with his left hand) when suddenly someone puts something on his head.

"What the hell!?" he exclaims, irritated, as he removes the offending piece of _whatever-it-is_ from the top of his head. It turns out to be the bento container he used yesterday (only empty). He turns to look behind him and sees Aomine looming.

He considers just turning back to his lunch and ignoring him, but thinks that that would be awkward since he's been obviously and directly approached. It'd be especially awkward since they're in front of the entire team. So he just narrows his eyes at him, in a way that clearly asks _"What the hell do _**you **_want?" _and says _"Get away from me" _at the same time.

"The _gyoza _yesterday was really damn amazing" Aomine says. Which stuns Kagami for a moment because wow is he complimenting him with a superlative? Is this really happening?

Aomine then crouches down at Kagami's left side to peer at his bento "Ohhh, croquettes again, did you make beef this time like I said?"

Kagami considers lying and saying _"No, I made potato cause I hate you"_ but instead says "What do you _think _asshole?"

Aomine replies by grabbing a croquette from Kagami's bento. And before he can slap the bastard's hand, Aomine's already put the damn croquette in his mouth.

"Mmm, beef…" Aomine says between chews "You did good Taiga"

Kagami grunts and says "Don't call me that" as he turns back to his bento.

"Where's **my**bento?"

"Where it _always _is" suddenly an arm seems to fly right in front of Kagami's eyes and he's startled back for a moment before he realizes Aomine's reaching for his bento which had been situated on Kagami's right. "What the** fuck** you ass? There are ways to get it without giving me a fucking heart attack, _geez_"

"Pfff—" Aomine snorts as he opens his bento "—you're just a wuss"

"The _fuck _did you just say?"

"You're a wuss." Aomine repeats, annoyingly nonchalant as he pops a croquette into his mouth "A wuss who has orgasmic cooking, mmm, what the hell do you put into your food?"

"I—" the word _orgasmic _being used to describe his cooking, and by _Aomine _of all people unnerves Kagami "—just the normal stuff!"

Aomine doesn't reply with words, instead he makes decidedly indecent sounds as he eats a couple more croquettes.

When Kagami turns away from the sight, looking extremely uncomfortable, he meets the gaze of Sakurai and all his other teammates. He's shocked to find them gawking at him and Aomine in amazement.

"I…what?" he blurts out in his confusion.

Everyone shrugs and turns back to their meals as if to say _"Nothing, nothing at all"_, even though how they're still peering at them from the corner of their eyes tells Kagami otherwise.

Kagami frowns, turns back to berate Aomine for this, and finds that Aomine has eaten half of his lunch already.

"You moron!" He shouts, as he grabs the bento from Aomine "If you eat any more there won't be any left for lunch"

Aomine just takes the bento back and says "Yeah, yeah, I'll just buy some _yakisoba_ bread or something later"

"If you keep eating like that and keep not practicing you're going to lose muscle and gain lots of fat" Kagami snaps at him

"I'm surprised you even know something like that" Aomine snorts

"What is that supposed to mean?" Kagami growls "I'm not stupid!"

"Pff—Tell that to your last math quiz"

"You only got two points more than I did!"

"Still _more_ than you did"

Kagami growls again, raises his hands which are twitching as if they want to strangle Aomine to death "I swear" he mutters through gritted teeth "One of these days your lunch is going to be poisoned _and then_ we'll see who's laughing asshole"

Aomine snorts "Probably me in heaven cause you'd have been kicked out of the team"

Kagami then moves to strangle him for real but Sakurai reaches for his wrist and Imayoshi shouts "Kagami!" before he can really do it.

He hears Wakamatsu say "Why'd you have to stop him?" like a whine, as he takes a deep breath to calm down.

"_Don't mind the bastard… he's not there… Time to eat in pea—"_ his thoughts are interrupted by a cluttering sound and he sees Aomine has stood up and is licking his fingers.

"That was good, could you make more _gyoza_ for tomorrow?"

"Arrrgggghhhhh"

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Later at lunch, Kagami approaches Coach Harasawa about his training in the faculty room. He nervously relays his concerns, while Coach just looks at him silently and emotionlessly. He just can't tell what the Coach is thinking _at all_. Kagami actually considers that he isn't listening for a moment until he mentions he asked Momoi and Sakurai for advice, and he gets asked to elaborate on it. This is probably the most words he's said to an adult since he'd arrived in Japan.

"So, uhm, what should I do?….sir"

"I think Momoi-san's suggestion might be best" Coach Harasawa says, playing with a lock of his hair, looking deep in thought.

"What do you mean?" Kagami asks "Uhm, sir."

Coach releases the lock of hair to look Kagami squarely in the eyes and then crosses his arms "From now on you should do more roadwork, do you own any ankle weights?"

"No…sir"

"Buy a pair. Or borrow from one of your teammates, then do road work every day with those on. Start with four miles then work up to five or higher when you're confident you can go that far. See me again in two weeks, before the Finals League begin."

"Yes… sir" Kagami nods, taking in the instructions.

When Coach Harasawa nods back but says nothing in reply he adds "Thank you" then bows, and fidgets in place for a while, eyeing Coach who had gone back to his work as if waiting to be formally dismissed, then slowly starts walking to leave the faculty room, bowing in greeting to the teachers he passes on the way out.

He walks back to his classroom, scratching the back of his head _"Ankle weights?"_

"Ah! Kagamiiinn!" He hears Momoi call for him from behind. He turns back to see her jogging towards him.

"Did you talk to Coach?" she asks as she stops in front of him.

"Yeah"

"Aaaandd?"

"He told me to do roadwork with ankle weights on" Kagami makes a face that clearly says he doesn't know _why _"And to follow him up on it in two weeks"

"Oh! He's trying to strengthen your leg muscles then, good choice considering the data on you—"

"The what now?"

"—that I gave him, what did he say about your left hand?"

"Uhm, nothing really?" now that she mentions it he had absolutely no comment on that part "I guess I'll just train it on my own for now"

"Oh, well then that's fine I guess. He must have plans for that later. Anyway, I heard Aomine-kun apologized to you this morning."

Kagami snorts "I wouldn't use the word _'apologize'_ to describe that. He obviously thinks he's done nothing wrong"

"Oh, well, if it was anyone else that screamed at him, he wouldn't be calling them by first name"

"Yeah because I _feed _him, it's the same reason why he's been calling Sakurai by first name" Kagami grunts "Wouldn't exactly call that being _close_, wish he'd stop, I don't like being called by my first name"

"Didn't you live in America?" Momoi asks him, an eyebrow raised

"Well…" Kagami trails off, leaves it at that

"If you don't want to tell me right now it's fine"

Notably, Kagami thinks, she uses the words _'right now'_ as if fully expecting Kagami to tell her eventually. A bit begrudgingly, he thinks that he probably will.

"Anyway, I was just checking in with you. I have to get back, haven't actually finished my lunch" she turns to walk away, her hair swishing as she waves goodbye.

"Right" Kagami sighs "Lunch…"

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Kagami buys the ankle weights on his way home and wakes up early next day (at what could only be a godforsaken time) to do the roadwork. One thing he can say for sure: the things were fucking heavy. It's not that he was in pain and had to change the way he moved (which he knows is when he'd have a real problem), it's just that the weights take a toll on his speed.

"_It'll take more time to finish this than I thought"_ he thinks, _"And I still need to make those damn bento shit"_.

Running those four miles doesn't actually feel so bad though, feels doable to him at least. When he's done it's fifteen minutes to six am and he has half an hour at _most_ to take a shower (cause_damn _does he feel sticky) and finish making the bento and still get to morning practice on time. He showers in five minutes, makes the bento in twenty (he cheats though, and makes sandwiches instead of cooking rice), packs and double checks everything with the remaining five, and then heads for school.

He starts to feel tired during the commute, probably a mixture of getting less sleep than he's used to, and running so far and so hard first thing in the morning. His eyes droop so bad he has to stop walking a little bit from the school gate to shake his head and will himself to muster more energy. It's just too damn early to be this active.

When he gets to the gym, they're already doing basic drills, and Kagami panics a little bit cause he just **really**doesn't have the energy for this. He's pretty sure he'll still perform well on the drills, but he's also pretty sure that if he's going to get punished with extra rounds of drills he's not going to survive this day. (he's also _probably _going to end up sleeping through all of his classes, probably (actually surely))

He starts nervously walking towards the locker room. Coach doesn't seem to be around, maybe he could—

"Kagami"

"_Oh shit, Imayoshi-senpai"_ he doesn't know if he should look nonchalant (and kind of look like an asshole like Aomine), or look apologetic (and seem a little bit pathetic). He goes with very mildly apologetic (because getting lumped with Aomine? No way in_hell_).

"Yeah? Uhm, sir…"

Imayoshi doesn't look angry, in fact by the look on his face, Kagami thinks (hopes) he's not actually in trouble like he'd thought.

"Coach said you only need to do half of the basic drills, join in when I call you"

Kagami nods _"So I was excused? And no one's complaining?" _he wonders, as he walks towards the locker rooms to get changed.

He ends up wondering about it for all of morning practice because the mumbling behind his back he expected from the other freshmen never came; neither did the inquisitive looks from Wakamatsu. Nobody seemed to care, and Kagami finds it really _really _weird. Considering how competitive everyone is he expected _someone _to be butthurt over any form of special treatment, kind of like how Wakamatsu is about Aomine. Maybe it's because Aomine was just more of an asshole than him, or maybe it's because all they really care about on this team is winning. When it comes down to it, maybe anything that'd help them win isn't anything to complain about.

Wakamatsu finally breaks the silence on the matter later when they're all eating "So what's your special training?"

"Uhm, roadwork…. Four miles, with some ankle weights"

"Ugh, that sounds tiring" Wakamatsu grimaces "Must feel like eight miles instead of four with those on"

Kagami shrugs "It's not too bad I guess… feel like I'll fall asleep in class though"

"And you're still making lunches for Aomine?"

"Uh… yeah…"

Wakamatsu frowns at that, which is expected, Kagami guesses.

"Isn't it a hassle? You don't need to pamper that bastard you know"

"I guess, but it kind of gives me more motivation to finish my roadwork faster" Kagami shrugs "So it works out, kind of?"

Wakamatsu raises an eyebrow.

"Ok not exactly I guess, but…" Kagami shrugs, then doesn't elaborate any further. He sees Sakurai giving him a reassuring smile, and attempts to smile in return to thank him (he's afraid it looked like a grimace instead though).

Breakfast continues on without incident, but later as they're walking to their classroom, Sakurai asks "Do you really not need help with the bento? I noticed you made sandwiches today and no rice"

Kagami huffs "I wasn't lying when I said it was more motivation you know, it _is_"

Sakurai looks unsure.

"Look if it gets to be too much I'll ask you for help"

"Alright then…" Sakurai says, still looking unsure "Uhm, make sure you do"

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

As he predicted, Kagami ends up falling asleep in class and he gets into trouble for it which is kind of really annoying considering Aomine _rarely gets caught. _It's like he'd mastered the art of sleeping in class without getting caught because he does it all the time but somehow he's always awake when he needs to be, but is asleep all the other times Kagami looks. He's gotten caught a few times but never by a particularly strict professor.

Kagami had no such talents. Yet another thing he needs to work on.

It's only lunch time but he still feels beat (better than this morning, but still unusually tired). He wonders if every day is going to be this tiring, but at least it made him feel like he was doing _something_. This thing with Aomine, it's become… well there was no other way to describe it except as a _problem_. But the thing is he doesn't know what to do about it. He doesn't want Sakurai to get bullied, but he can't deny that Aomine is a _very big _asset to the team, and he can't do anything that's _**actually**_ solution-like about the former if he can't resolve the later. He _knows _he can do this, but he's kind of stuck, he needs to do _something_ but he doesn't know _what_.

It's frustrating, and Kagami hates feeling this way. Training hard makes him feel better, _productive_. He knows Coach must know what he's doing, so he guesses he'll just have to see in two weeks if he really is making progress or not. For now he needs to focus on the games this Saturday, and ok maybe his lunch cause his left hand is still pathetic at handling chopsticks.

"I didn't know you could look so deep in thought Kagamin"

Kagami almost chokes on his food as Momoi's words snaps him out of his musings. "Why are you here?" he manages to say between coughs.

Momoi greets Sakurai hello, ignoring Kagami for a moment, before turning to him and saying "Well, I just told coach I'd finished making the data on the teams we might face for the finals this Saturday, and he wanted it delivered to you guys as soon as possible"

She hands the two of them each a stapled document. Kagami leafs through his copy; it has what seems to be statistics and paragraph form analysis of all the regulars of the teams _Seihou _and _Seirin_. (1)

"You're expected to study all the better players and know how to deal with them. Coach says you should focus on Seihou cause they seem more likely to win, but my bet's on Seirin" and then she winks at them.

Kagami makes a face because he knows she means to say _"And I'm usually right"._

"Don't look at me like that, you _**know**_ it's true" she tells him, and then addressing them both "Anyway, I haven't eaten lunch yet so I'm going to go back to my classroom".

She looks at Aomine (who immediately started sleeping after finishing his lunch in seven minutes flat) and sighs. With another short goodbye, she moves to leave.

"You and Momoi-san seem close" Sakurai comments when she's gone

"We're not" Kagami huffs

Sakurai doesn't really reply, but he does hum thoughtfully as if he's unsure.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

**(1) **I've changed some things up a little bit, put Touou in the division Shutoku was in in canon

**A/N: **Trying to transition into more AoKaga interactions, haha. Thank you for all the reviews! I don't have time to reply to all of them right now (probably, next week) but I really appreciate the advice and encouragement! (also I'm really tired right now, if you spotted any mistakes I might have missed in my self-edit, please point them out to me)


	5. Chapter 5

Momoi turns out to be right (because of course she does). Kagami wasn't really paying attention to the first half of Seirin and Seihou's semi-final since he'd been paying attention to Touou's own semi-final (he had played because that damn bastard Aomine was late _again _what the fuck), but he'd seen enough of the game to see that Seirin was pretty good. Especially this one kid who did some damn amazing passes, it was difficult to keep track of him since he kept disappearing, but it was impressive to say the least. It's too bad he's probably not going to get to play against them.

"Oi, Taiga, the ones I asked you to make, did you bring them?" there's a lot of things Kagami wants to say to Aomine (most of them profanities Aomine probably can't even pronounce) but Coach is here, so he bites his lip and scowls at him instead (he can see Sakurai glancing at Aomine nervously, and so he tells himself this is something he _has _to do).

"Here you go" he says, eyes and lips twitching as he hands Aomine a small tupperware filled with honeyed lemons.

The bastard should be grateful Kagami couldn't sleep the previous night or he couldn't have made the things on top of making lunch.

Aomine makes an appreciative sound as he throws the lid to the ground and starts munching on the lemons.

"Aomine!" Wakamatsu shouts "You weren't even in the match for half as long as the rest of us! Why do _**you**_ get a supplement!" he turns to Kagami "And Kagami! Why are you _**still**_making lunchboxes for him! You're not his manager!"

He roughly grabs the Tupperware from Aomine's hands "Pass me a lemon! _**I'm**_ the tired one!" He starts gobbling them down, quickly and without pause except for a couple of quick comments ("Tastes nice!" for Kagami and "No more for you!" for Aomine).

"Tsch" Aomine rolls his eyes "I've had enough."

"What!?" Wakamatsu exclaims, his mouth full of lemons.

"Don't gobble lemons like that!" Imayoshi admonishes

"It's okay—" Momoi interjects "I prepared everyone's share!"

"Oh, nice!" Imayoshi says as he turns to her "Thank…. You…." he trails off as Momoi presents him several uncut lemons dipped in honey "Kagamiiii, don't you have any more!?"

Kagami glances over to Wakamatsu "Uh… not anymore…"

"Oh" Aomine quips as if he'd just remembered something "Satsuki's cooking is horrible you know?"

"This isn't even what we call horrible cooking!" Imayoshi exclaims in horror "What's with the whole lemons!?"

Momoi pouts "What!?"

Kagami takes a look at Momoi's creation himself and grimaces, how can someone lack so much common sense in cooking?

"You're supposed to cut the lemons idiot" he says to her.

She narrows her eyes at him, offended, but before she can retort Coach claps his hands together twice.

"Alright, listen up! It's too early to relax! Let's talk about our next match."

Aomine grunts "Just pass the ball to me" he says, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He turns to leave the room, "I'll go warm up a little."

Wakamatsu moves to stop him "Aomine! Wait!"

Aomine pauses, turns his head slightly, just enough to look at them all "I'll score all the points we need." he says "That's enough right?"

"Damn you…" Wakamatsu grits his teeth

Kagami glances towards Coach, who's looking at Aomine thoughtfully, he's pretty sure he knows what he's going to say.

"Aomine…" he starts, his usual poker face turning smug "I'm glad to see you know what you're meant to do."—_'I knew it'_ Kagami thinks—"Warm up now!"

"Yes" is all Aomine says before he closes the door shut.

Wakamatsu turns to Coach with an incredulous look on his face, Kagami wonders why this still surprises him.

"Coach!?"

Coach seems to pay his outbursts no real heed "Well, that's not all… We're going on with Aomine as the game maker." then turning to Momoi "Momoi-san, please tend to Aomine."

Momoi nods, but looks a bit reluctant as she leaves the room.

"That's not it!" Wakamatsu moans

"Wakamatsu, stop getting worked up like this every single time…" Imayoshi says, looking and sounding exasperated.

"You too Captain!?"

"I told you—"Imayoshi sighs "—the winner calls the shots here."

"But that attitude of his…" Wakamatsu tightens his fists so hard they turn white "Doesn't he care for his teammates!?"

Kagami thinks that is pretty darn ironic coming from a member of this team. None of them really have the right to complain about Aomine's lack of willingness to be a team player.

"Just leave him alone." Imayoshi says firmly, earning a "Huh?" and a confused look from Wakamatsu.

"As long as the player is good enough, everyone will let him do whatever he wants. Looking at it in a bad way, one would say he's proud and arrogant. Looking at it in a good way, one would say he has overwhelming confidence obtained through a long career of success. Ah, don't get me wrong, I don't particularly like or dislike Aomine. But we don't care about attitude here—"

'_Speak for yourself'_ Kagami thinks.

"—Aomine scores, so his words are justice. I've got no complaints, as long as he's a great player. This is the style the team has chosen to achieve success."

Wakamatsu looks down, still pissed, but he doesn't reply anymore.

Coach starts asking them if they'd studied Seirin's stats, but Kagami doesn't pay much attention. It doesn't really concern him anymore does it? Besides he's not completely comfortable with what Imayoshi just said, and the fact that Coach didn't disagree with it at all. It's not that he didn't know, it's just that… he kinds of hates to be right about this, if only because he also wants the freedom to take Aomine down a notch.

He doesn't see Aomine again until later when they're being lined up before the match (unfortunately for Kagami, he remains on the bench). Aomine walks towards that kid from Seirin who's good at passing.

"It's been a while Tetsu." he overhears him say "You've been doing pretty good huh? You look very determined."

"_So they know each other,"_ Kagami thinks _"from Teikou?"_

"Yes" the kid replies, voice dull, expression generally blank save for his eyes which gleam with determination "I promised Momoi-san."

Kagami briefly wonders when that even happened, but gets distracted by Aomine chuckling. It just sounds…. _wrong_.

"I get the gist of what you're saying," Aomine says, laughingly "but this is a matter of action. How about this, we'll talk about it _after_ you beat me."

There's a brief pause before the Seirin kid replies with a "Yes."

Kagami feels his gut wrench, judging by the look in Aomine's eyes, Seirin probably won't even get **close **to victory.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"What the hell! Aomine's hogging the ball and the spotlight!" Wakamatsu shouts angrily.

"Eh!?" Sakurai, who's running beside him, jumps at the loud exclamation, his face distressed.

Kagami sympathizes with Wakamatsu; if he was playing he'd be really frustrated with how selfish a player Aomine's being right now (which is more selfish than he usually is, and that's saying something). As it is though, he's on the bench, watching from the outside—a spectator—and what he can see isn't just Aomine being a self-centred asshat, he can see him doing his job and owning the competition.

And he can also see Seirin's morale slowly falling apart.

It's… _**shit**_ it's hard to explain, Kagami doesn't have the words, and he feels a little bit sick because somehow the look on the passing kid's face is so familiar, but he doesn't really want to think about _**why**_**.** Every time Aomine intercepts one of his passes it looks like torture to him. He always pastes a determined face back on, but Kagami can tell his resolve's crumbling.

He even tries to guard Aomine (and well he's an interesting player but that is really a bad idea for _**anyone**_), getting Aomine a foul for charging in the process. The passing kid sits there on the court in the aftermath.

Aomine stands over him, frowns and says "You still haven't changed Tetsu, you're still like you were in middle school, exactly the same…"

He pauses, and the look on his face, Kagami notes, is something he has seen only a few times before. It's like he's a mix of sad, angry, resigned, and it's actually a pretty terrifying look if he's going to be honest.

"How disappointing, you still think that you can beat me just like that?"

"That's exactly what I think." the passing kid says firmly, as he stands up "This is my basketball."

Aomine looks at him, his face clearly saying _"Why can't you understand?" _but remains silent before walking away.

Seirin's coach calls for a time out and the passing kid (Kuroko, according to what his coach screams (Tetsu, according to what Aomine's been calling him, but that seems a little too… intimate)) gets benched.

Kuroko's face scrunches up, obviously frustrated by this.

To be honest, Kagami's starting to have a really hard time watching all this, especially now that Kuroko's not in the game. It's even less of a match without him.

It's not that Kagami's unused to winning with such a big gap it's just that…. this looks almost personal. Aomine's disposition is actually worse than usual.

Aomine's movement grows sluggish with every point he garners, but even then he's still too fast for everyone, it's almost as if Seirin's defence is non-existent. When half-time comes, Aomine looks bored out of his wits.

"There's no way you only have this much in store, your team _**has**_ to be better. This is starting to make me fall asleep." he says to all of Seirin in general, then, looking at Kuroko "Come on, get over here Tetsu!"

There's a deep frown on Kuroko's face, and his eyes are furious.

It isn't looking good for Seirin. They all look tired, burnt out from their previous match. And the emotional toll of Touou seemingly being able to predict their every move seems to be slowing them down.

Kagami's not even playing but he feels a little guilty.

Back in the locker rooms (for half-time), the team acts as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening (Aomine chooses to stay outside), and well, while it _**is**_ business as usual, but they've _**got**_to have noticed Aomine talking to that Kuroko guy right?

"_God, nobody here really cares do they?" _Kagami looks at Sakurai who's chugging down water beside him _"Even _**he**_ looks undisturbed by all this…"_

The second half is not much better for Seirin. Though Kagami can't say this is in any way a satisfying victory for them either. It's not Aomine's fault he's a damn amazing player but, geez, this feels almost cruel, what with the winning by such a large margin and biting dialogue.

It's like, Kagami feels guilty that they're winning, but also feels guilty about being guilty. He's a little confused to be honest, and _**very**_annoyed about it. He grits his teeth and tries to will all the bothersome thoughts away.

Kuroko looks exhausted now, his fatigue slowly climbing to the same level as the second years, not that it actually even matters anymore, considering how little time's left, and how far behind they are.

"The winners and losers were determined faster than I thought." Aomine comments; Kuroko's guarding him, and the stark difference in how laboured their breaths are, is striking "Your great passes are useless now. Your stamina is long gone. Everybody's hopes are all dashed. Now, even you are simply another tired member of the team" his eyes narrow "I won this one Tetsu."

Kuroko refuses to back down, body language radiating determination, despite this, he sounds a little desperate when he replies "It's not over yet."

"You can't win basketball just by one amazing counterattack. Your chances are not even better than one in a million."

"When the possibility of winning is zero, that's because the players have given up, even if other people think it's meaningless, it's disgusting for me to quit even when the possibility seems to be zero! Therefore I will never give up!" Kuroko looks Aomine straight in the eyes, and doesn't falter, an act which seems to inspire his teammates.

"Hey, are you guys dead!?" Kagami hears Seirin's number four shout "FIGHT TILL THE END!"

The benched members of Seirin start cheering loudly. Beside him, Kagami's own teammates seem utterly unaffected by all this.

"I agree to only one thing you said—" Aomine says, cutting past Kuroko's guard, moving faster than Kagami's seen him move all day.

Seirin's number eight and number five try to block him simultaneously, he makes a shot that should be damn impossible, leans back so far nobody can block him.

Kagami wonders how much control over his body, how much _**balance**_and _**confidence**_Aomine must have in order to be pulling the move off.

The buzzer sounds, it's all over. Touou's won by a mile.

Aomine turns to Kuroko "Giving up easily is stupid… So it's a pity really, that you never changed the way you play. No change means no improvement. In the end… your basketball cannot defeat me."

Kuroko looks devastated, Kagami thinks Aomine is being a little unnecessarily cruel, the number of times he has repeated those things throughout the match was just—

Kagami growls in frustration, and only realizes how weird it looks for a guy on the winning team to do that when everyone looks at him like he's stupid. He shrugs at their questioning expressions, and watches the two teams give the standard thank you.

Aomine and Kuroko walk past each other, no further words exchanged, no eye contact— as if they didn't know the other person at all.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"ALRIGHT!" Wakamatsu roars loudly as he pumps his fist in the air, triumphant look on his face "WE CRUSHED ALL OUR OPPONENTS!"

"Shut the fuck up, Wakamatsu." Imayoshi snaps, uncharacteristically intolerant (Kagami notes), but well, he did say what everyone else was thinking, so it's not like he's really complaining about the change.

Coach calms them both down by saying "Alright, alright, just hurry up and rest, and think about the mistakes you made this game."

Not ones to really go against authority figures, they stand down and mind their own business.

Everyone starts packing up and dressing to leave, and Kagami hears it, the beginning of an obviously damn idiotic comment, from one of the freshmen who barely come to practice anymore too (makes him all the more irritating in Kagami's eyes).

"—and we thought Seirin was sooo strong, especially that number eleven, he was incredibly weak." his tone is mocking, it makes Kagami's blood boil "He was still trying to fight to the end. Probably has some mental issue or something. Isn't it better just to give up earlier?"

And he just _**snaps**__,_reeling with rage.

A loud bang resounds when he grabs the front of the guy's shirt and throws him against a locker. To his shock, he notices Aomine had moved right along with him (or he must have, for them to be in this position).

They stare at each other for one long moment, their forearms pressing together, expressions identical, their anger paused by the surprise of unexpected… company.

The room is silent, Kagami's not sure what to do at this point. He's so startled his rage has almost wholly dissolved. He lets go of their asshole teammate in one quick movement, steps back and jumps like he's been electrocuted. He rubs his forearm for a second, looking at Aomine weirdly (a look Aomine returns with a raised eyebrow).

Then, remembering what he'd been doing originally, Kagami scowls, takes a step forward and shouts "A person who was sitting on the bench has no fucking right to talk!"

Everyone's so silent….it's incredibly unnerving.

Kagami fidgets in place looking around, observing everyone's looks of utter surprise.

"Ah I mean, I was on the bench too, but I saw how number eleven played and uh wasn't he kind of cool though actually? Well ok, maybe cool isn't the right word uh—" he's starting to sound like an idiot crap "—I mean I couldn't see him half of the time, but the way he played, I'd never seen it before. Even in America! So uh…" now it sounded like he was bragging.

Thinking to himself that it would be good to shut up now, he presses his lips together tightly.

And then, to his, and everyone's shock, Aomine begins laughing, it's almost manic, and completely foreign to Kagami's ears. It's a little_**scary**_to be honest (and the look of horror on several of his teammates faces shows he isn't alone in thinking this).

Aomine unceremoniously lets go of their asshole teammate (who falls onto the floor) and throws his head back, putting a hand over his eyes as he continues to laugh.

Kagami feels lost _"What the fuck is happening?"_, he glances towards Momoi for some enlightenment, but even she looks completely at a loss.

When Aomine finally stops laughing he sighs as if incredibly satisfied, and then turns to their asshole teammate, puts on one hell of a fake looking smile and says "Benchwarmers can just shut the fuck up cause they don't know what they're talking about, alright?"

He turns to Kagami, gives him a once over, then snorts, pats his right shoulder, and says "Taiga" as if it were some big private joke.

Aomine walks out of the room just as Kagami starts demanding to know why he'd been laughing

"What's his problem…" says that damn asshole teammate, obviously trying to regain some dignity (and failing, if you asked Kagami).

Everyone else immediately start to mutter amongst themselves.

Kagami wants to laugh at Wakamatsu's face that's looking like a goldfish right now, but Imayoshi's smirking and containing his laughter beside him, so it kind of cancels out how funny that is with creepiness.

He hears Coach sighing, already putting the incident behind him as everyone else tries to figure out what the hell just happened.

Kagami catches Momoi giving him a knowing look, giggling.

"You're officially his friend now Kagamin" she struggles to say between giggles, patting Kagami on the back.

Kagami is now somehow made to feel that maybe he's made a grave mistake, which really, is how he's starting to feel about most of his Aomine-related decisions... Go figure.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Much to both Kagami and Sakurai's dismay (and their entire class' great intrigue), Aomine starts joining them for lunch (and, being the grade A asshole that he is, he also starts stealing their food even if Kagami already made him his own damn bento). Aomine's sudden magnified interest in him is both flattering and annoying (mostly annoying), and neither he nor anyone else who's become aware of it is quite sure what to make of it (though Momoi seems to be enjoying the new development).The cause is most probably what happened after the match with Seirin, but Kagami's not sure how the incident earned him so many brownie points.

Whatever the cause however, he can't say he's very happy about the effect, Aomine is now much more invasive. Before it was just the presumptuous first name calling and the arrogant assumption of entitlement to whatever the hell he wants, but now it includes touchy-feely gestures that come out of nowhere and seem especially designed to make Kagami jump or get angry (a slap on the back, hair ruffling, an arm around his neck and other annoying gestures).

And, as if Aomine being in his company all the time (or at least when he wasn't sleeping in the infirmary or skipping practice (the former is unfortunately (for Kagami) happening at a lesser frequency since Aomine seems to have finally realized he might get held back for bad attendance)) wasn't enough, he has to literally drag Aomine along to watch their next opponent's (Shutoku's) final preliminary match at Coach's command (effectively making him Aomine's official babysitter really). Granted, the entire team plus Momoi are going too, and it had been Imayoshi who'd baited Aomine with gravure idols and stuffed him into a bag (a giant piece of cloth really), but Kagami's still the one stuck carrying him and keeping him company during the trip.

Aomine growls and screams in protest at first but then gives up and takes a nap. His snores are loud, and (Kagami swears) intentionally pretentious. Kagami hates his life.

They get weird looks from a lot of people and so Kagami is just all too relieved when Momoi says "Alright, we're here Aomine-kun".

Aomine emerges from the bag looking disoriented (much to Kagami's satisfaction), he looks at the magazine in his hand, then turns to Imayoshi fuming "What the heck!? This is Hiriuchi Mako-chan, not Horikita Mai-chan!"

Kagami wonders about Aomine's priorities, if that's what he's more upset about given the situation.

Imayoshi shrugs looking a little annoyed "Ehhh, I didn't know… They're both cute, so isn't it fine?"

"I'm for big boobs!" Aomine screams back

"Stop complaining, you're free anyway right? All you have to do is stand and watch" Imayoshi's ability to out-bastard Aomine is outstanding as usual.

"Tch…" Aomine huffs and looks towards the court; his expression quickly turns into one of surprise.

"Huh, he got better" he says, tone mildly of awe

"Yes" Momoi replies seriously "Midorima-kun seems to have extended his range once again"

Kagami looks for who they're talking about and sees a guy shoot from the half-court line _"That's insane"_ he thinks _"He must be the one"_.

"The arc of his shots is really high huh" Imayoshi notes passively "It'll be hard to block those"

Aomine snorts "We don't need to."

Kagami wonders if Aomine's reply means he can't block Midorima's shots, or has at least never actually tried (and therefore isn't sure if he can or cannot), he seems very self-assured that it's not something that really matters though, so it's probably nothing to be worried about.

"_Not that I was worried"_ Kagami thinks to himself.

"Are you sure it's nothing to worry about?" Wakamatsu snaps "Shutoku usually triples their opponents' score and they don't even use Midorima for more than one quarter for most of their matches."

That's… a pretty impressive record, Kagami decides.

"That doesn't matter" as much as he hates to admit it, Aomine's confidence is actually reassuring.

Wakamatsu still seems unconvinced though, and he turns to Momoi for confirmation.

"Aomine-kun is mostly right" she says "It will most likely not matter if we prevent the ball from ever getting to Midorima-kun in the first place, and there are many ways we can make sure of that. The other players may make it a little hard to accomplish this though." she flips through the papers on her clipboard "Most notable players are definitely their number four, Ootsubo Taisuke, and number ten, Takao Kazunari. Ootsubo is an aggressive player, arguably one of the best centers in Tokyo right now, as for Takao I think the fact that he's a first year regular just like Midorima-kun speaks for itself."

"Ugh, none of that matters!" Aomine whines "Pretty sure everyone here can match up to them and all I have to do is score more than Midorima right?"

Nobody disagrees to that, in fact most either nod in agreement or look away not wanting to contest him. The few who have different expressions are Wakamatsu, whose eyebrows a scrunched and is biting his lip, Imayoshi, who has this creepy amused smile on his face, and Sakurai, whose cheeks are huffed and seems to be looking at Midorima in annoyance (Kagami double takes at that last one because he's never seen Sakurai with even a mild look of annoyance but now he looks absolutely fuming).

Momoi sighs "Well, if Aomine-kun's sure I guess we won't have much to worry about… Ah!" she turns to Kagami "Kagami-kun! Coach will see you tomorrow morning before class in the faculty room."

"What for?" Kagami asks

"Your special training of course, don't tell me you forgot"

"I didn't" Kagami huffs

Momoi ignores the statement "Well anyways, don't forget again"

Kagami grunts, too tired to protest, and turns back the game to see Midorima pull off yet another ridiculous half-court shot. He hopes Aomine's right.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Kagami leaves morning practice a little early the next day to meet with Coach as instructed (Aomine, who had miraculously not skipped out, complains about this. Momoi hits him with her clipboard.).

Coach wastes no time, the first thing he says (after Kagami says good morning) is "How many miles are you able to run now?"

Kagami doesn't answer immediately because he honestly doesn't know. "Five… I think"

Coach actually looks surprised at that "How long does it take you?"

"Uhm… an hour and a half at first, but now it only takes an hour"

"Do you alternate between a more leisurely pace and dashing?"

"Yes… sir"

Coach fiddles with a lock of his hair, his arms are crossed, and his eyes are seemingly regarding his lap in thought. "How much of that one hour do you spend dashing?"

"About half I think"

"Hmmm" Kagami's getting a little nervous, is his time horrible? Coach lets go of his hair, and looks at him "It's a little slow" he says, and Kagami gulps "But considering the fact that you're still getting used to the weights, better than I would have expected. You're starting in the next game."

Kagami breathes a sigh of relief, then pauses, taking in what Coach had just said "I… what?"

-**o-o-o-o-o-**

**A/N: **Lots of dialogue drawn from canon in this chapter, but liberally edited for fic purposes. Reviews, though not, of course, required, are greatly appreciated.


	6. Chapter 6

"Yo!" Aomine slings his arm around Kagami's neck, making him flinch. Kagami bats Aomine's arm away and glares at him.

"Don't do that" he grumbles.

"You look like you haven't gotten any sleep" Aomine's definitely laughing at him; the hint of amusement in his voice is unmistakable.

"Oh fuck off"

"Kagamin can't sleep whenever he's really excited" Momoi quips

"_**Really**_" Aomine turns to her with interest

"Shut up!" Kagami screams as he turns red.

Momoi laughs, Aomine snorts, and Kagami glares at them with all his might.

"_It's the first time I get to start"_ Kagami thinks _"and _**not **_because this bastard's late, of course I'm excited"_

"_**You**_ seem happier than usual too" Kagami tells Aomine, noting his better than usual mood.

"Yeah well" Aomine smirks "This'll be a little bit more interesting than usual"

"Midorin would be hurt to hear you say 'a little bit'." Momoi says, though she sounds not so much admonishing as she does amused.

Kagami thinks it's a miracle Aomine even said it given how confident he was that Midorima's three-pointers were no big deal to them. But well, even if he is an annoying bastard, he's been giving credit where credit's due (at least in his own assholey way, and only for as long as Kagami's known him), so there's that.

When they arrive at their locker room Kagami grows more restless, starts wondering if he is really truly a starter or if he just dreamed it. After pinching himself to confirm that yes, this is reality, he wonders how this happened so soon, sooner than even he expected. Did Momoi put a word in for him? It seems like the sort of thing she'd do, especially since she seems to think Aomine now kind of considers him a friend, and that because of this, any mid-game squabble would be of no consequence. Kagami's not too sure about that but he's used to Aomine being an ass (and getting used to ignoring his being an ass when it's convenient) so he thinks there probably won't even be any of these squabbles.

He still wonders though, why now? Why was he made a starter in a game against a team with one of the Generation of Miracles (who all seem to be insanely skilled bastards like their very own resident asshat Aomine)?

It's just such choice timing, and not everyone on the team seems comfortable with the fact that he's been made a starter for this game.

Kagami shakes his head.

Well, it's probably better for him to just concentrate on the game. He's here and he's going to damn well show them he belongs.

Coach comes in a few minutes into his warm-up stretches and calls the starters' attention. He looks a bit more serious than usual. Kagami guesses this is how it's going to be every time they're up against someone from the Generation of Miracles.

"I'm changing my original decision for your marks" Coach looks at Kagami "Switch with Aomine, you get Midorima"

Any murmurs in the room that could be heard before come to a halt; Kagami participates in this stunned silence that sustains for a good fifteen seconds before Aomine snorts and says, "Midorima's not going to be happy about that"

Coach huffs, amused "Let him be" he says.

"He gets pretty insufferable" Aomine adds

"_Speak for yourself"_ Kagami thinks, before saying "I can do it" with as much determination as he can muster.

Coach nods in his direction in acknowledgement and, Kagami guesses, to silently say _"Yes I know"._

"This is better for us" Coach says firmly, gazing at everyone, obviously gauging their reactions and daring them to object.

No one does, after the initial shock they seem to be begrudgingly accepting Coach's judgement (the exact same reaction they all had when it was announced to the team that Kagami would be starting instead of Susa).

It's all routine after that, they file out, set down their water bottles and towels at the bench, and the starters line up to greet Shutoku's starters.

Up close, Kagami can see that Midorima's taller than him, it's not intimidating precisely, but it makes it obvious this isn't going to be easy, considering how high the arc of his shots are on top of that.

Kagami grins _"I wouldn't have it any other way"_

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

The moment Touou's on defense and Kagami guards Midorima there's chaos. Kagami didn't expect such a noticeable change in the atmosphere, but he could hear the unmistakably puzzled murmurs from the audience and Shutoku's bench. He can also see Shutoku's number ten grinning at him, as Midorima glares at him intensely.

Kagami scowls right back at him defiantly, but this just seems to irk Midorima more. Midorima turns to look at Aomine in one quick angry movement, his facial expression demanding an explanation.

Aomine replies with a shrug and an annoyingly amused smirk.

The entire exchange happens very quickly, if Kagami hadn't been on court and right in front of Midorima he might have missed it even.

Midorima turns back to him, face still fixed in a scowl, but now also tinged with determination.

He moves to shoot.

Kagami's surprised, for about a second, but he quickly regains his bearings and jumps to block. In the seconds it takes for him to ascend however, his eyes widen a fraction; quickly realizing that the trajectory of Midorima's shot is far higher than he had anticipated.

Kagami doesn't even get to touch it.

Midorima starts walking away even before the ball reaches the hoop, and calls Shutoku's number ten (Takao, as Midorima called him) to come with him.

This is the confidence, Kagami supposes, that comes with being a monster like Aomine (and apparently an arrogant bastard like Aomine).

From there, Aomine gets a hold of the ball and scores pretty easily, steals the ball before Shutoku can take the offensive and scores again. Though the second time, he had to get a little creative since Midorima tried to block him (how Aomine could make a shot by throwing the ball behind him in such a way that it would still arc towards the basket, Kagami would really like to know).

If there was any doubt Aomine could win this for them just by scoring more than Midorima, there wasn't any now.

Shutoku takes possession of the ball, and with Aomine far away from it Kagami guesses it's time to move to defense.

He stops in his tracks however when he hears Wakamatsu shout "What the _hell_!" and turns to see Midorima taking position to shoot from a point barely inside the court.

"_He can't be serious can he?"_ Kagami thinks, wide-eyed, he glances towards Aomine and sees he has a look of mild surprise_ "So this is new to him too?"_

The ball's trajectory is ridiculously high and in the moment it takes for it to reach the other side of the court Kagami thinks it couldn't _possibly_ succeed… _"Could it?"_

The sound of the ball smoothly going into the hoop seems incredibly loud to Kagami, whose eyes are still wide with disbelief.

He hears Imayoshi heave an exaggerated sigh and say "This seems to be a little more complicated than we thought it'd be."

"You think?" Kagami manages to say.

"My range is the whole court" Midorima announces, voice loud enough for the entire court to hear, though he's looking and walking straight towards Aomine "_Don't _underestimate me"

Irritation flares up within Kagami _"He thinks my guarding him is Touou _**underestimating **_him? What am I, _**air?**" he thinks, as he growls at Midorima (though he doesn't seem to notice, or if he does he ignores him).

Aomine snorts "Wouldn't dream of it" he says, then shrugs "That isn't what's happening here anyway, you'll see"

Aomine's vote of confidence surprises Kagami, though it also irks him cause he's acting like he knows something Kagami doesn't. First thing's first though, he's got to prove this Midorima bastard wrong.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

When Kagami says "It's better if I can't win" he doesn't mean "It's better if I _**don't**_ win", no, what he means is he likes the challenge of turning it into a situation where he can say "I _**can**_win, and I _**will**_". Otherwise it'd be pretty boring, if you go into every game thinking "I will win" you're either full of it, or saying that from a long history of nothing but victory. Aomine, Kagami thinks, is probably the later. He thinks it's still a stupid way to think though because he was undefeated in _**middle school**_did he ever stop to think there were bigger fish to fry out there beyond the preteens with underdeveloped bodies he always played with? Probably not, considering the unmotivated asshole that he is today

Life's just boring when you've got nothing to fire you up, Kagami doesn't want to risk making basketball not quite as entertaining for himself again (before he can contemplate more on that, he pushes the thoughts away). It doesn't matter who he's up against, he will pull something out of his ass if he has to. If Kagami's anything, he's damn persistent.

"_Persistence is nothing if I don't make something happen here though"_ he thinks, gritting his teeth _"there has to be something"_

The problem is he doesn't know what that something is, Coach hasn't switched him with Aomine so he must still be expecting something, but unfortunately all Kagami's been doing is try to block Midorima (keyword: try) and score a few points here and there.

They're half-way through the second quarter and there's been no difference from early in the first, Midorima's still glaring at him, and Touou's winning by a bit, four points exactly (thanks to Aomine mostly).

Just a little bit more though, and Kagami thinks he can do it, he can block Midorima… maybe. He thinks he can. Hopes.

"_Otherwise this is all just going to be embarrassing and I'm never going to be a starter again"_ maybe it's an exaggeration, but there's some truth in it, and Kagami's not sure he can wait a long time again now that he has a chance to make it _**now**_. If he can't play full games for a long time, might as well forget it. It isn't what he signed up for.

(a thought nags at the back of his mind, telling him he wouldn't quit because he doesn't want to go back to the worst year of his life, but he ignores it)

Midorima seems really angry that Touou's marks haven't been changed up to accommodate his preference.

Kagami grits his teeth, vowing to himself he'll show this bastard what he can do.

Midorima goes for another nearly full-court shot; he's been consistently making shots from ridiculous distances in an obviously passive aggressive effort to get their coach to switch Kagami for Aomine.

"_I'm not going to let him make an ass of me"_ Kagami thinks, as he jumps to block the shot. His middle finger barely grazes it, but it's progress _"Just a little more" _he thinks, taking deep breaths, wiping the sweat off his chin with his jersey.

Hearing a loud clang, he turns back to see the ball circle the hoop before falling into it.

"Never seen any of Midorima's shots go in like that before" Shutoku's number five remarks, leaving Kagami a little bit proud of the minor achievement.

He turns back to see that Midorima hasn't walked away yet and is fixing narrowed eyes at him.

"What's your sign?" Midorima asks him cautiously.

"Huh?" It's weird question to ask, Kagami thinks, but there was no harm in answering "Leo, why?"

"Tsch" Midorima scowls "Oha Asa is really always right" (1)

"_What's that supposed to mean?" _Kagami wants to ask, but Midorima's already walking away.

During Touou's offense, Shutoku's number five guards Kagami, while Midorima's on Aomine. The crowd always seems more excited during these times, because, he supposes, this is how they think it should be, one member of the Generation of Miracles versus another. Even if Kagami's a little pissed off by it, he has to admit Aomine's plays are more interesting than usual when he's against Midorima.

Midorima's strong, and tall, and fast, and generally a good match for Aomine. Kagami can see well that they were teammates, there's always a split second where they try to predict what the other is going to do.

He tries to imagine the two of them playing together with Kuroko from Seirin, and begins to think he understands just why these Generation of Miracles guys were so unbeatable.

They're already monsters individually. Together they must have been a force of nature.

Aomine runs past Midorima who's quick to react, but as Aomine shoots a three pointer in possibly the most unconventional way possible (by one-handedly throwing it from the right side, eyes trained forward), Midorima fails to block him.

Aomine doesn't bother looking back when he jogs to the other side of the court for defense.

Kagami hears Wakamatsu grumbling about Aomine hogging the spotlight (as is typical really), and thinks to himself _"Not for long"_.

He quickly runs to guard Midorima, who's currently at the half court line preparing for another shot.

"No you _don't!" _Kagami can't help but shout as he jumps to block the shot, and this time all five of his fingers graze the ball. He can't help the feeling of satisfaction the fills him when he sees Midorima's eyes widen.

"Ah!" He hears Sakurai exclaim, and he turns to see him wide-eyed, even though nothing's happened yet.

Then he hears Imayoshi pensively say the words "This trajectory…" and he thinks he might understand.

The ball hits the hoop, but it doesn't go in.

After a very short moment of stunned silence the crowd goes _wild_, Kagami can't help but grin because goddamit, _there you go._

"_Take that all you assholes who ever doubted me"_ he thinks triumphantly.

Wakamatsu pats him on the back as he passes him "Nice one Kagami" he says, and ok, he really is ridiculously flattered by all this, it's damn embarrassing really.

"Thanks…" he mutters, and then he shakes his head _"Well, I can't be too satisfied with that"_ he thinks_ "I won't stop till I completely shut Midorima down"_

He's running towards their side of the court when Kagami notices Shutoku's number four is nearer to Aomine, and remembers Momoi mentioning that he's one of the best centers in Tokyo.

"Something's up" Imayoshi says, loud enough for both Kagami and Sakurai to hear.

He doesn't like the sound of that. He checks on the guy marking him.

"_I think I could get past him if I need to"_ Kagami thinks.

He glances towards Aomine who's dribbling the ball, looking a bit bored "This is a little disappointing Midorima"

"_He noticed it too" _Kagami thinks, mildly surprised _"Well… of course he did, I guess"_

"It was not my choice" Midorima replies "Feel free to ignore him"

Aomine looks towards Shutoku's number four as if considering him.

"Hmm" he says, the only warning before he rushes past Midorima.

Shutoku's number four moves, obviously attempting a screen but Aomine's both too fast and too agile for him Aomine moves towards the left, a fake, Kagami quickly realizes, as Aomine swiftly spins so he goes through the right as number four moves left, falling for his fake.

Midorima's quickly on him again, but Aomine's already jumping for a dunk and it's too slams it in, and the backboard creaks.

Aomine lands in a crouch, and slowly gets up with a smirk on his face. Kagami catches Midorima rolling his eyes.

Kagami keeps his eyes trained on Midorima as Touou moves for defense, Shutoku's number ten (Takao, Kagami reminds himself) quickly passes the ball to Midorima.

Kagami quickly moves to guard him, but Midorima makes some quick movements to side step him, and runs towards the half court line.

It startles him for a moment, and he mutters a curse to himself for reacting a second late. He runs towards Midorima, already preparing to jump.

He's not even fully aware of it right away, but before he knows it he's already swatting the ball to the ground from behind Midorima.

Fortunately, unlike him, Sakurai seems to have had a presence of mind since he quickly takes the ball and runs to their side of the court for a three-pointer. Since Midorima shoots from so far away, their side of the court is just that much closer.

Shutoku's advantage is now a disadvantage.

"Midorima!" Aomine shouts, getting both his and Kagami's attention "Told you" he says with the biggest smirk on his face, as if _he _were the one who'd done the blocking.

Midorima glares at him, and then at Kagami, thereafter walking away and muttering "Oha Asa truly is always right"

Kagami grunts "What the hell does that even mean?"

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Since Midorima won't make so many shots knowing Kagami can block them, Shutoku starts relying mainly on their center for their offense. This doesn't work out quite as well as they would have probably hoped as either Aomine or Kagami are always nearby, and usually manage to block him. The gap between Touou and Shutoku's scores slowly increased, and now Touou's twelve points ahead.

During half-time Coach had told them it'd be difficult for Shutoku to make a comeback as long as Kagami was on court and Midorima was shut down. (Aomine told Kagami he could see his tail wagging, Kagami told him to shut the fuck up). Midorima's a perfectionist, Momoi had added, his confidence comes from a lot of practice, innate skill, and a strong belief in 'fate'. He doesn't usually like doing things that he knows he likely won't succeed in.

"Of course" she had said "he usually has full confidence in the things he does on court, most of all his three-pointers" and then she'd thrown a meaningful glance at Kagami's direction "Not today though"

Kagami understands now why Coach had him do roadwork. The stamina he'd built up is plenty useful.

As he moves for a jump shot he hears Shutoku's number five say "How long are you going to keep jumping?" and can't help but feel a little smug.

He makes the shot and now they're fourteen points ahead, less than thirty seconds left in the fourth quarter.

It's basically over now.

He stares at the score board a little bit in awe, but is then surprised (so much that he jumps a little) when he hears Shutoku's number ten (_Takao_, he reminds himself again) say "We're not going down that easy" as he runs past him, ball at hand, and then passes it to Midorima who's at the half court line.

Kagami turns to run over there, but Aomine beats him to it, smacks the ball away before it even gets to Midorima. Imayoshi picks it up and shoots a three pointer just before the buzzer sounds.

The ball makes it in seamlessly, the game's over.

"Looks like you got the worst match-up" Aomine tells Midorima as he passes him to line up with the rest of the team

Midorima doesn't answer, simply closes his eyes and breathes deeply, a frown on his face.

"C'mon Shin-chan" says Takao "Even Oha Asa has to be wrong sometimes"

Midorima grunts "Shut up"

Takao smiles at him a little, as if this was just typical of him.

After the standard thank you, Kagami heads back to the bench and gets patted on the back by a few of his teammates. He doesn't keep his happiness in anymore and just grins at them.

Once they're taking it easy in the locker rooms and preparing to leave however, the fatigue catches up.

"I need to eat something" he announces, though loud enough for only those beside him (Sakurai and Wakamatsu) to hear.

Wakamatsu turns to him, looking a bit eager obviously running on a high from their victory "What, do you want to go and celebrate?"

"I want to eat some burgers is what I want to do" Kagami says flatly

"There's a Maji burger nearby" Sakurai suggests

"Oh, I like that place" Kagami replies, mildly enthusiastic now "Let's go there"

"Great!" Wakamatsu shouts "Let's invite—"

"Taiga!" Aomine interrupts, slinging his arm around Kagami "I'm hungry did you bring lunch?"

Kagami shrugs his arm off "_NO, _I'm gonna go buy lunch for myself leave me alone"

"Oh!" Momoi exclaims cheerfully "Where? Can I go with you? We should celebrate for you Kagamin!"

"Whaaat, what's there to celebrate about?" Aomine whines "Of course we won, but if you're going to go eat, I'm in."

Kagami makes a face, he's completely fine with Momoi but Aomine's a little… Oh whatever

"Yeah ok, whatever" he says picking up his bag, then looks expectantly at Sakurai and Wakamatsu "You guys still coming?"

Wakamatsu immediately replies "Yes", looking determined not to let Aomine's presence ruin their initial plan.

Sakurai looks unsure at first, but Kagami gives him a look that clearly said "Please don't leave me alone with these people", and he relents.

Sighing, Sakurai says "Ok"

"What's taking so long" Aomine grunts "let's go"

Kagami's probably going to regret this.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"Eww, it's like we're a team now" Aomine says with obvious distaste as they all sit together in three connected tables. Wakamatsu and Sakurai sit together on one side, Aomine and Momoi on the other (Kagami's still busy getting his food).

"We _are _a team!" Wakamatsu shouts indignantly

"Pfff!" Aomine starts unwrapping one of his burgers "Yeah, ok"

"What do you _think _we are anyway you—" Wakamatsu sees something behind Aomine, and his face contorts into one of mild disgust "What the hell Kagami"

"What?" Kagami asks, as he sets down his tray, sitting beside Momoi.

"That is literally a mountain of burgers in front of you"

"Yeah so?"

Wakamatsu gestures towards said mountain of burgers as if it makes his point obvious "What do you mean _'Yeah so'_ you can't possible finish that!"

"Pfff!" Kagami chomps down on one of his burgers, mouth still full he says "Yeah, ok"

Beside him Momoi starts giggling, he gives her an inquisitive look, but she waves her hand dismissing it as nothing.

"Anyway" Kagami adds once he's swallowed "the burgers here are way smaller in size compared to the ones in America, even your large ones are tiny"

Wakamatsu seems to just give up at that and shifts his attention to his food, grumbling to himself about damn return students and how all his teammates are crazy.

Aomine meanwhile seems mildly interested "Just how big are the burgers in America?"

"Uh" Kagami's a little weirded out Aomine's actually making small talk, but it's better than the usual him he guesses "depends where you buy them I guess, they can be pretty damn huge. Had to eat one as big as my head for a contest once actually"

Aomine leans forward, eyes slightly widened "Wait, are you saying that there are burgers as big as your **head**?"

Kagami frowns "I don't like how you just said that, but yeah"

"Hmm" Aomine leans back, takes a bite of his burger and chews on it thoughtfully "Make me one"

Kagami pauses for a moment, taking that in "Did you just ask me to make a burger as big as a head?"

"As big as _your_head"

"I _still _don't like the way you say that"

"Just do it"

"Fuck you" Kagami snaps "Make it yourself"

Aomine frowns "I can't cook though" then as if a great idea had just dawned on him his face brightens "Hey Ryou—"

"_STOP"_ Kagami and Wakamatsu exclaim at the same time

"Neither of them are your personal cooks Aomine" Wakamatsu growls

"Uhm" everyone turns to look at Sakurai who fidgets in his seat before saying "I'm not sure I could make a burger that big…" Aomine's face falls "Ah! I'm sorry!"

"Don't apologize to a bastard asking for the impossible Sakurai" Wakamatsu pats his shoulder

"I could try to make one" Momoi suggests

"**Don't**_" _Kagami and Aomine reply

She huffs "You're both mean! I could do it if I put my mind to it!"

"Satsuki" Aomine sighs "just don't"

Momoi glares at him "Aomine-kun should shut up"

"Uh…" Kagami starts uncomfortably "You know, even if any of us _could _manage to make this thing, I don't think there's a container large enough to bring it to school"

Aomine considers this for a moment "Then I'll go to your house"

"_Is he fucking serious?"_ Kagami thinks, and he's pretty sure he's got an interesting facial expression on right now.

"You can't just invite yourself into someone's house Aomine" says Wakamatsu

"Senpai's right, don't be too imposing" Momoi admonishes "Kagami-kun's parents would be troubled"

"I actually live alone though" Kagami shrugs at the surprised looks directed his way "Coming back to Japan was kind of sudden, my dad was supposed to come here with me but something came up"

"That's perfect then" Aomine says, then turns to Momoi "No one to bother if I go to his house, see?"

"Well," Kagami frowns "you'll be bothering _me_"

"It's for a good cause" Aomine says

"_It really isn't"_ Kagami thinks, then firmly says "No"

"Just think of what'll happen if you manage to do it though" Aomine leans towards him "You could make two and…" he trails off, looking at Kagami as if he should understand

"What are you talking about?"

"Look," Aomine grunts "Since you love burgers so much that you eat basically a mountain of them, what's the harm in learning how to make one as big as _your head_?"

Kagami pauses "I still don't like the way you say that," he says, frowning "but I guess you have a point"

"He _does?_" Wakamatsu looks at him incredulously

Kagami shrugs, food talks.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

**End Notes:**

(1) To clarify, yes, Midorima's horoscope for the day here is the same as it was during the first Seirin/Shutoku game in canon

**A/N: **Tell me if I got anything wrong, I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing when I write these basketball games, at least when it comes to the basketball part lol. We're getting well into the "friends" territory of the aokaga here haha (even if Kagami wouldn't admit it, and Aomine wouldn't exactly call it that), which means the next step is naturally….? Haha, let's just take it slow.


	7. Chapter 7

Kagami doesn't actually care _**what **_he eats as long as it's big.

That being said though, the idea of eating a burger as big as a face again is to him extremely appealing—or at least _**was **_extremely appealing up until he'd discovered how much work and expenses came into creating the monstrosity.

He never should have let Aomine talk him into this.

_**BUT**_—what's done is done—nothing he can do about it, might as well make a burger that tastes so good it'll make both him and Aomine curse at first taste, and one that looks and smells so good that their mouths would water before that (it should also be large enough that Aomine would stare at the damn thing in _**awe **_the moment he lays his eyes on it).

He'd actually attempted cooking a burger from scratch before (though of course, not one of this size) so he knows the basic gist of what he ought to do.

So on Saturday morning he takes a trip to a department store to buy a round container with about the same diameter as his face along with some plastic wrap before heading for the nearby market and buying four pounds of ground beef.

He's already started heading back to his apartment when he gets a text from Aomine stating: "I remember seeing this show where this dude eats a burger with mac n' cheese in it."

Kagami has to stop and sit on a bench, dreading what the bastard's insinuating. He texts Aomine back: "…So? (and are you dropping by at 1pm or what)"

Aomine replies within thirty seconds: "So make mine like that (yeah around that time, maybe earlier)."

Kagami frowns and texts back, "It figures you'd be early for something like this and NO__I am not making you a mac n' cheese burger, don't have the money for that (by the way you should pay me back in cash for this you bastard)"

After hitting send, he gets up from the bench he's seated in and starts continuing to walk back home.

He receives Aomine's reply while he's closing the door of his apartment and it is, he notes, predictably assholic.

"Next time? (also how about I just play you 1-on-1) "

Kagami scowls as he reads the words, _"That fucking bastard" _he thinks.

He practically mashes the buttons of his phone as he replies "What next time? This is the only time I will make you a burger of this size you fucking bastard (and I don't trust you to keep that promise either, just be here at 1pm)"

Kagami then promptly pockets his phone and then sets all he's bought onto a counter. After thoroughly washing his hands and putting on an apron, he sets to work.

He's nearly done shaping the second burger patty when there's a knock on his door. He checks his wall clock and finds that it's barely past one (_**of course**_ Aomine's prompt for food). He quickly finishes up mashing the meat and washes his hands before heading for the door.

"Yo" Aomine says in a low monotone voice.

Kagami scowls at him before motioning for him to enter. He points at the couch and says "Sit".

"Your house is clean—" Aomine says, sounding awed, as he plops himself down onto Kagami's couch "—and _**empty**_"

"Don't need much, and don't want to live in a dump" Kagami replies a bit testily, as he carefully lifts the second burger patty out of its container with the plastic wrap he's lined it with.

"Hn" Aomine sounds disinterested, but is looking around the apartment curiously.

Kagami decides to ignore him for now and concentrates on cooking again. He's getting his largest frying pan ready (best he can do in the absence of a grill) when he remembers "Fuck, _**BUNS**_" he exclaims loudly "I forgot the fucking _**buns**_"

He groans in frustration at the realization and thinks about popping the patties into his refrigerator while he heads out to buy some, but then junks the idea when he remembers it's unlikely they sell buns large enough for the patties he's made.

"_**Shit**__" _he mutters, leaning onto the counter and thinking on his options. He could head for a bakery and look for a substitute for burger buns…. Agh, but it wouldn't taste the same, would it? Probably not by a long shot.

"_I could bake some"_ he thinks, then glances towards Aomine _"But he's already here so I have no time for that…"_

"What are you grumbling there about?" Aomine asks.

"I forgot about the buns" Kagami answers honestly "Unless you wanna wait a couple of hours while I go buy some ingredients and bake some I'm not sure you're getting you burger today"

Aomine frowns at first, and then shrugs "Well, let's just eat the patties on their own then, make the full burger next time"

Kagami grits his teeth "I thought I told you there won't be a next time"

"_**Technically**_" Aomine smirks "There hasn't even been a _**first **_time, since all you've managed to make is a burger _**patty**__"_

Kagami scowls at him as he considers the situation for a moment _"This is the only time I will buy four pounds of beef to entertain this bastard, but these patties will spoil if we don't eat them today or tomorrow..." _Kagami sighs.

"We're not eating these yet" he says decidedly, and takes the platter he'd placed the patties on and puts it in his refrigerator, then, looking Aomine straight in the eyes, he firmly adds "We're going out for lunch at Maji Burger, and then you're going to pay me back for the four pounds of beef I had to buy with some one-on-ones, _**and then**_ you're going to help me bake those damn buns so we can have burgers for dinner"

Aomine's facial expression tells Kagami quite clearly that he's reluctant to spend that much time with him.

"_Well tough luck" _Kagami thinks _"It's this or nothing"_

They stare at each other for another moment before Aomine sighs "Fine, if I'm going to get a burger as big as your _**face **_in the process, I guess it's kind of worth it"

"Agh! What is it with you and the size of my face!?" Kagami screams

Aomine opens his mouth, as if about to say something, but then apparently changes his mind since he closes it again and shrugs.

Kagami rolls his eyes at him "Whatever, gimme a minute to get ready"

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"And people tell me I eat a lot…" Aomine comments with a disgusted face as Kagami takes a seat in front of him. His tray is yet again filled with a mountain of burgers.

"Shut up" Kagami snaps "It's bad enough I have to eat with you on weekdays, if someone sees us here they'll start thinking we're close friends or something"

"Too late for that I think" Aomine snorts "Satsuki says half the school knows you make me lunch"

Kagami grimaces "Why do half of the students in our school even _**care**_?"

Aomine shrugs "Didn't you call me Mr. I'm-a-Big-Deal once?"

Surprised he even _**remembers**_ a conversation like that, Kagami stills a moment before replying.

"Well—"he says slowly "—didn't _**you**_ tell _**me**_ nobody called you that?"

"Yeah, doesn't mean it isn't true though" Aomine answers, before biting off a big chunk of his burger. With a full mouth he adds "I _**am**_ kinda a big deal"

"Geez, eww, don't talk with your mouth full, chunks are flying, it's disgusting" Kagami wipes his cheek with a tissue "Now your face is dirty too"

"Not like you don't make a mess when _**you**_ eat"

"Shut up"

Aomine gestures towards Kagami's food "Why don't _**you **_shut up and just eat? Gonna need the energy for when I kick your ass later"

"Fuck you" Kagami says, scowling.

He does however; concede by starting to eat his food. (Aomine smirks at that, and Kagami has to keep himself from throwing a punch)

The rest of lunch is spent by Kagami loudly slurping his soda and eating his food with exaggerated chews in hopes that his actions will appear defiant (though in reality, they served only to amuse Aomine further). By the time Kagami gets to eating his last burger Aomine's already impatiently telling him to hurry it up.

Aomine continues to whine when they make a stop at a convenience store to buy two large bottles of water before they head for the nearest basketball court. And once there, Aomine wastes no time and starts acting like an asshole.

He grabs the ball when Kagami's barely removed it from its bag and speedily jogs away with it, dribbling.

"C'mon, aren't you gonna even guard me?"

Kagami wants to claw that smug look out of Aomine's fucking fac—

"Not that it's going to make a difference"

He continues to regret being in Aomine's presence.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Kagami feels like he's taking care of a child. How the hell did Momoi survive being Aomine's care taker since they were kids? He's like an overgrown baby when he isn't playing basketball (and even when he _**is**_ he's just a slightly more grown up asshole).

They're in a grocery store shopping for what Kagami needs in order to bake the burger buns, and Aomine's acting like the most ill-behaved five year old on the face of the fucking planet.

Kagami is trying to think about how much flour he's actually going to need to make giant burger buns when he catches Aomine trying to smuggle a pack of macaroni and a block of cheddar cheese into their cart.

"NO" he growls out, swatting Aomine's hands away "I thought I told you we aren't making a mac n' cheese burger"

Aomine sighs "_**Look**_," he starts, looking a bit annoyed and also strangely pitying "You may not know this, but mac n' cheese is the greatest invention this world has ever known"

Kagami just stares at him for a few seconds and wonders if this is _**really **_how Aomine plans to convince him into making a mac n' cheese burger. The serious look on Aomine's face tells him yes.

He sighs, turns back to the wide selection of flour before him then says "I already said no, and I _**meant **_it"

"But I want it" Aomine says monotonously, like an order really, as he pushes the pack of macaroni onto Kagami's chest.

Kagami's pretty sure he's about to pop a vein. He doesn't want to make a scene in public though, so he tries making a calm suggestion instead.

"How about I just buy some cream cheese and we put some of that on the burger?"

Aomine raises an eyebrow "Wouldn't that be more expensive?"

"It's less work though" Kagami grits out

Aomine frowns "But I want a mac n' cheese burger"

Curse whatever tv show put that damn idea into Aomine's head "Look, here's the deal, I need to cook the mac n' cheese separately before I put it onto the burger, don't you think maybe that's a _**little **_too much considering I have to bake a giant ass burger bun and fry a giant ass burger patty?"

"But I wa—"

Kagami growls to interrupt Aomine and says "_**Fine**__,_ put the damn things in the cart but _**you're**_ gonna be making the mac n' cheese you hear me?"

Aomine stares at the ingredients in his hands for a moment before nodding "How hard could it be?" he says.

Kagami hopes Aomine will eat his words.

He finishes up buying all the ingredients, then somehow goads Aomine into carrying the heaviest plastic bag, before they head back to his apartment.

Kagami takes a quick shower before he starts working (with how much he'd sweated it would have been unsanitary otherwise), and when he strolls into his kitchen he catches Aomine staring intently at the back of the pack of macaroni they had (or really_** Kagami **_had (it was his money)) bought.

"What are you doing?" Kagami asks cautiously, as he starts putting ingredients in a bowl to mix into dough.

"Trying to figure out when I'm supposed to cook this thing…" he turns to Kagami "How long will it take to bake those things and fry the patties?"

"All in all? At least an hour maybe. Those'll take only about five minutes though, cheese sauce maybe twenty, more or less depending on how fast you work"

Aomine grunts, looking annoyed, his posture slacks and he looks at the pack of macaroni disdainfully.

"What am I going to do till then?"

"Why are you asking me?" Kagami huffs "Think about it on your own!"

"Ok, let me say that again, what'll _**we **_do while those are baking?"

Kagami doesn't stop mixing but he does take a moment to think about that. It'd be awkward if he and Aomine just sat around quietly, and he's not sure there's anything for them to talk about that won't make Kagami want to tear his eyes out…

"_**Fine**_" he growls "I'll make the damn mac n' cheese, that'll give me something to do. You can… I dunno, _**watch**_"

Aomine opens his mouth, obviously about to object but Kagami interrupts by adding "If you have a complaint you can think of your own damn way to pass the time"

Aomine shuts up at that, and leans on the island with his arms crossed observing Kagami work.

Having finished mixing Kagami divides the dough into two equal parts and molds them into shape, then flattens them slightly as he places them onto a greased pan. He turns his oven on at the lowest setting then turns it off again, opens it to let some heat out.

"Why'd you turn it off?" Aomine asks

Kagami's a little bit surprised at the question _"Is he actually _**interested**_?"_

He looks at Aomine warily when he replies "I just need a warm place to let the dough rise…"

Aomine makes a face that tells Kagami he doesn't know what that even means, so he waves a hand at him dismissively.

"Never mind—" he says, as he sets his cellphone alarm to ring in thirty minutes "—it's not really important that you know"

Aomine frowns at him but doesn't really say anything after that. In fact, and it's surprising really, he doesn't whine at all.

Kagami wonders if it's just that fun to see him scurry about the kitchen and multi-task (probably _**is**_ for Aomine given how he thinks he's so above them all, Kagami included obviously).

And then, it occurs to him, as he's grating cheese into his heated flour and milk concoction,how this entire situation is just ridiculous. Unnervingly domestic in ways they will surely be teased for later (given Momoi finds out, which he's pretty sure she will).

All things considered, it's far too late to be asking himself why he's doing this. He's already got time, money and energy invested in it after all.

Still, he can't help but be pissed at himself.

"_What do I hope to achieve by doing this?"_ he thinks _"I should have backed out this morning when I had the chance"_

He sets his cheese mixture aside and starts cooking the macaroni. Once done he takes a strainer and separates the now cooked macaroni from the water, thereafter putting it in a bowl and pouring his cheese concoction all over it.

Aomine attempts to get some when he sets it down the counter but Kagami slaps his hand away.

"NO" he admonishes "And why don't you just take a shower? This all be done once you get out, if you take your time... or at least nearly"

"I have nothing to change into" Aomine says with a frown

"Just go commando, I'll lend you some clothes. We're about the same size anyway."

"Fine" Aomine says, and starts stripping _**right there**_.

"_**Do that in the bathroom**__" _Kagami screeches

Aomine rolls his eyes but picks up his shirt walks away from Kagami's kitchen space "Which one is it?"

"Second door to the left" and then Kagami's phone alarm rings "That'll be the dough—" he says, then turns to switch the oven on "It'll take more or less twenty five minutes for them to bake, shower for that long and you might just have your burger when you get out"

"Yes, yes" Aomine says irately as he walks towards the bathroom.

"I'll leave the clothes and a towel on top of the toilet in a bit!" Kagami calls after him.

And fuck he _**really**_feels domestic now, this is seriously the last time he is letting Aomine into his house.

Twenty three minutes later the bread is done, and Aomine's out of the shower.

Aomine attempts to touch the bread and this time Kagami lets him if only to see him get singed. He smirks with satisfaction as Aomine winces and pulls his hand back.

"Why didn't you tell me it was hot?" Aomine growls

Kagami snorts "I thought it was obvious."

While letting the bread cool down, Kagami gets to frying the patties, he uses butter to oil his pan then fries some bacon in it thereafter using the leftover oil to fry the first patty. He repeats the process to fry the second one, and then gets to cutting up the buns and putting them in separate plates.

Aomine's practically drooling by the time Kagami's putting the patties in between them along with the bacon he'd fried and the mac n' cheese.

He sets one burger in front of Aomine.

"Be my guest" he says, not that Aomine needed an invitation, as he was already taking his first bite.

"_**Fuck**__—"_Aomine says, startled "—this is _**amazing**_."

And it just- he just looks so genuinely _**pleased **_and _**thankful **_and maybe it's because it's been a long day and Aomine's been nothing but an asshole, and really, he shouldn't, he _**really**_ shouldn't—but Kagami _**does**_ and he just—it's _**silly **_that he would feel this way he _**knows **_that but hearing that—

He's just so. fucking. _**happy**_.

Not as happy as he felt when they won against Shutoku, but—_**embarrassingly**_ (and Kagami will never admit to it)—pretty damn close.

Does he _**really **_want Aomine's approval that much? His _**praise**_?

He's received that before for his cooking, but never without that annoying mocking tinge to his voice that Kagami's grown accustomed to. It's like he's a different person, like that old Aomine that Momoi talked about.

It's a good thing really, that Aomine's apparently too busy experiencing death by food to notice Kagami's lack of reaction and slightly flushed face.

Sighing inwardly, he thinks to himself _"What the hell am I doing?"_

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"Here're your clothes"

It figures that Aomine would do this in public and during _**morning practice**_ (did he not skip out especially for this? like what the hell). Kagami can feel everyone looking at them as Aomine stands there presenting him poorly folded clothes.

Kagami eyes the garments with distaste. "Did you at least wash these?" he says as he takes the clothes.

Aomine's eyes gaze up "Uhmmm"

"No then" Kagami grunts "Fine whatever I'll just wash them myself later"

"You should cook that burger again for me sometime"

Kagami frowns at him, starts stuffing his clothes into his bag "You say that like you're ordering me to do it"

"Wouldn't say _**ordering**_ just—"

"Oh what's this?" Momoi interrupts, smile threatening to break her face (if you ask Kagami) "Dai-chan why did you have Kagamin's clothes?"

"_Shit, nicknames"_ Kagami thinks _"Either she's really happy or she's plotting something, probably both"_

"Took a shower at his house last Saturday" Aomine answers nonchalantly.

"Oh?" Momoi has this _**knowing look **_when she turns to Kagami "As expected of you Kagamin, such a good friend to lend out your clothes and shower"

Kagami frowns, looks away because Momoi's apparent excitement is annoying him "He was sweating all over my kitchen"

"Why was he in your kitchen?"

"You know the answer to that question, you were there when he asked"

"Mmm, but why was he _**sweating **_all over your kitchen?" she leans in, looking expectant. Kagami notices much of the people present do the same, except Imayoshi, who seems to be… holding in laughter? And doing a poor job at it too

Kagami grits his teeth.

"I don't know!" he shouts, now more annoyed with the situation "Why don't you ask _**him**__?"_

Momoi turns to Aomine, an eyebrow raised.

Aomine looks at her, great annoyance obvious in the slight purse of his lips and narrowed eyes (and Kagami thinks that for once they are on the same page).

"_Just what is she trying to accomplish with this?_" Kagami thinks _"Further establish that I'm maybe sort of Aomine's friend right now?"_

"We played some basketball" Aomine says, apparently giving in "It was really pathetic, but _**eh**_"

Kagami's growls at that, his irritation quickly changing targets "How do you put up with this shit?" he asks Momoi

She giggles before replying "Years of practice, and a lot of patience"

Aomine makes a face that says he resents that statement, and opens his mouth to say something but is interrupted by Coach calling everyone's attention.

They start lining up in front of him to listen to what could only be an important announcement (Coach rarely stayed after watching their warm ups and giving them training instructions). Kagami goes to stand beside Sakurai who waves at him as he approaches, a small smile on his face.

Sakurai's expression starts turning a little nervous as he nears however, which confuses him up until he's already standing beside him, at which point he realizes Aomine had followed him and is also standing at a close proximity.

Aomine's new tendency to invade his space is still unnerving, and if he were to be honest it's mostly because he's finding he doesn't really completely dislike it (as much as he does find it weird based on what he knows of Aomine's personality). He really wants to ask him if they're _**friends **_now (especially after the weirdness that was how _**domestic **_they were last Saturday, and other things Kagami doesn't really want to think about), but he's not sure he'd like the answer whether or not it's a yes.

He shakes his head _"I'm thinking too much, what happens, happens", _and then he turns his full attention to the announcement being made.

"We have two more matches left before we advance, one against Meisei, and another against Senshinkan" Coach says "we're going with our usual starting line-up for the match against Meisei, but the line-up for the match against Senshinkan will be the same as the one against Shutoku"

Kagami stands up a little straighter at the announcement, tries his hardest not to grin excitedly.

Beside him, Aomine lets out a sound akin to a short laugh, causing Coach to look at their direction.

"Do you have objections?" he looks genuinely interested. Kagami can't blame him; Aomine rarely put his two cents in on matters like these, and when he did it was mostly joking and not any form actual input. The rest of the team looks equally interested, even Wakamatsu, who Kagami had expected to glare at Aomine for sounding cocky, looked begrudgingly intrigued.

"Senshinkan's no good anymore" Aomine huffs amusedly "Meisei's current team's probably stronger" he lazily point a thumb at Kagami "If you think his jumping around makes us stronger, put him on the starting line-up against Meisei instead"

Kagami _**hates **_how he worded that, but he _**would **_much rather play in the match against the stronger team (and well, Aomine's opinion is somewhat trust worthy on these things, _**somewhat**_).

Coach fiddles with a lock of his hair, deep in thought, turning to Momoi he says "What do you think Momoi-san?"

"Based on the data of their preliminary games, Meisei does seem to have more strengths this year, and Senshinkan's performance _**does **_seems rather lackluster when compared to the rest of the Kings, and even compared to how their team performed last year."

Coach nods "Well then, it seems smart to do as Aomine suggests" he turns to look at Kagami "Are you content with that?"

"Yes" Kagami says firmly "….sir"

Coach nods again "That'll be all then, dismissed."

As the team starts dispersing Kagami turns to Sakurai and says "Let's walk to class together?"

"Sure, I'll go get my bag" Sakurai says with a smile, then as he jogs away he calls back "Meet you at the exit!"

Kagami nods then starts heading to get his bag as well, and is surprised to spot Aomine walking beside him. He's confused for a moment before he remembers Aomine had left his bag in the same area (and thus is possibly not just following him for the sake of crowding).

"Thanks" he says before he can stop himself, then mentally slaps himself for it.

_"What am thanking him for?" _he thinks.

"Heh" Aomine says laughingly "I didn't do shit"

"Well" Kagami says, picking up his bag "whatever then"

_"It's not like I meant to blurt that out anyway" _and he ignores his odd slight feeling of disappointment.

He's already walking away when Aomine shouts "If you're really thankful make me another giant burger!"

"Go to hell!" Kagami shouts back, but, despite himself, he smiles.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

**A/N: **Are we finally getting somewhere here? Haha, anyway the next update might take a while, cause the school year's about to start here and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be drowned in school work


	8. Chapter 8

As far as Kagami's concerned, it's ridiculous to say that he and Aomine are friends. Even though they kind of are. Basically he doesn't want to say it out loud cause it might become binding (i.e. having an unfortunate degree of permanence). Momoi has his eternal respect for lasting this long. Aomine's incredibly high maintenance, mostly because though he'd be sort fine without them but it will almost certainly be at the expense of someone else. Better it be someone who will put up with him but not his bullshit.

It occurs to him that that's the line he and Momoi probably feed themselves so they can sleep at night.

(Cause at the end of the day, the amount of Aomine's assholery really makes it hard to put up with him without simultaneously also sort of putting up with his being a dick.)

He tries not to think too hard about it though, since in any case Aomine's not _**that bad **_most days though he can be annoying as hell. (He also tries hard not to think about how compliments from Aomine now had the uncanny side-effect of inducing uncontrollable smiling from him.) Instead, he gives his focus to training and the daily bento.

He's got a memo stuck on his refrigerator with a list of Aomine's favourite food… or at least those he'd figured out. It's got only three items on it (teriyaki burger, gyoza, mac n' cheese burger) but it's a start. Hopefully it'll help in planning what to cook faster so he has more time for his morning roadwork.

Ever since he'd discovered just why Coach had gotten him to doing it, he feels much more motivated to run. He thinks he might even increase the distance he runs soon. The Meisei game's soon, and he wants to be in good shape for it.

To show that the Shutoku match wasn't a fluke

Not that any of his teammates doubted him, in fact a lot of them seem to have magically found respect for him, but he still wants to prove to himself that that wasn't just a one-time-big-time type of event. He should also probably get to training his left hand again since he's been slacking off about it compared to his legs. The better he gets, the less likely Aomine is to call his plays "jumping around" (or at least he hopes that'll be the case, you never know with Aomine).

"Your roadwork seems to be very effective" Momoi notes, impressed look on her face "I see a bright future for you"

He's never heard her vocally assessing someone's improvement, usually she'd just notes it down and then hands the notes on her observations along with the data on the other teams.

"… is that your divination then?"

"More like woman's intuition"

Kagami raises an eyebrow at that, but lets it go seeing as she seems so sure of it.

"Well let's hope you're right "he says "Feel like I'm still missing something"

Momoi looks puzzled "Really? You seem to be on the right track though… Maybe you just need another win to make it feel real!"

"Maybe…" Kagami grunts "But I dunno, it's kinda like… I just feel like there's something I should be doing that I'm… well, _**not doing**_"

"Hmm—" Momoi taps her chin thoughtfully "Well so far I think you'll be doing great if you continue with your current training regime… but if you think there's something missing… Oh!" she beams "You should ask Dai-chan, you're pretty similar players, he could figure it out maybe"

Kagami frowns "I'm not too sure he'd be willing to make the effort… "

"Didn't he already agree to a one-on-one?"

"But that was with the promise of food"

"Well then bribe him with food again!" Momoi huffs "You know I only wish I had that sort of power over him, but for some reason he hates my cooking!"

"Uh…" how was he supposed to comment of that? "…right…"

"Anyway" she waves a hand "I'm sure he'll be happy to help you if you feed him"

"_More like he'll be willing to exert minimal effort if I do..." _Kagami thinks, but says "I'll take that advice" instead. Momoi had a point anyway. Whatever half-assed assessment Aomine had was probably better than nothing.

Kagami clears his throat "Anyway, I should probably finish my morning drills…"

"Oh! Right. Keep me updated on what happens alright?"

"Ah… Sure"

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"Gyoza again, nice" Aomine says, mildly excited. He makes an incredibly blissed out face when he puts one in his mouth and adds "What do you put in this stuff" he chomps on another one "ugh, _**so good**_"

"Just… normal stuff. By the way, never make that face again it's creepy" Kagami grimaces

"What face?" Aomine looks genuinely oblivious, Kagami decides not to press it.

"Mggh, nevermind" he slumps in his chair "Hey… can I ask you something?"

Aomine raises an eyebrow "This isn't a favor is it?"

"Sort of… not really. It's nothing much actually but uh…" Kagami scratches the back of his neck "See I kind of… " he grunts in frustration. He was perfectly alright with asking Aomine when Momoi suggested it but trying to say it to the man himself… It was hard to admit inadequacy to the guy you want to overcome.

"_**The thing is**_—" he says firmly "—I feel like there's something… _**missing**_"

There's a pause, before Aomine says "…missing"

"Uh yeah"

"From what exactly?"

"I—from my training"

"Ok" Aomine says slowly "What do you want me to do about it?"

"I need you to give me an idea about what I'm missing" Kagami scratches the back of his neck "Momoi suggested it actually, says we're similar"

"Pfff" Aomine snorts "what about us is similar?"

"No idea" Kagami shrugs "So will you... uh, help me?"

Aomine looks thoughtful for a moment, chewing on his food "What's in it for me?"

"That thing in your mouth" Kagami replies with a scowl "That's what's in it for you"

"Are you _**really**_ going to stop making me lunch if I don't say yes?" Aomine says laughingly, looking like he doesn't believe for a second that the answer to that will be "yes".

Kagami just glares at him, doesn't budge even when a silent, strained, moment passes..

Aomine looks at him incredulously "…. you're kidding"

"Try me"

Gritting his teeth, Aomine lets out a strangled whine as he tries to weigh his options. Kagami briefly entertains throwing in a giant burger promise again to sweeten the deal, just in case, but he reels himself in. He seemed to be leaning towards yes anyway.

"_**Fine**_" Aomine grunts "I'll do it, but your bento better be damn amazing everyday"

Kagami snorts "When was it not?"

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

There's a disturbingly bright twinkle in Aomine's eye when he arrives at the outdoor basketball court that Saturday (predictably thirty minutes late). Kagami recognizes the look. It's the same one he had on when he was trying to sneak macaroni and cheddar into their shopping cart. He's wide-eyed and grinning, and so obviously planning something that Kagami will not like.

"Yo Taiga!" he calls cheerfully, and when Aomine does _**anything **_cheerfully Kagami knows it can only be bad for him. "I saw this thing on tv last night and—"

"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT" Kagami says firmly, and then turns away so he doesn't have to see Aomine's infuriating disappointed pout.

"Why not? I'm here aren't I?" he grunts "You owe me!"

"And I brought you lunch" Kagami frowns at his shoes as he dribbles "I'm not going to take another crazy ass request you hear me!"

He hears a soft thump and a rustling of clothes, probably Aomine putting down his bag and taking off his jacket.

"The giant burger thing wasn't crazy" Aomine scoffs, as he walks to stand right in front of Kagami "It was amazing if anything, you have to admit."

Aomine's hands are on his hips and his fucking chin is actually held high, and Kagami just wants to give him a good uppercut because he has never seen anyone look so high and mighty in his whole damn _**life**_, and he's met a _**lot **_of assholes.

"Can't you take no for an answer?" Kagami growls

"Heh" Aomine's posture slackens, and he moves to start guarding Kagami "Tell you what if you win at least _**once **_today, I'm just gonna forget it. If you don't… well"

Kagami doesn't answer; instead he takes him by surprise by immediately trying to rush past him. He manages to do just that, and sees from the corner of his eye, Aomine looking mildly surprised, but in the split second he moves to lift the ball and shoot, it's suddenly out of his hands and tumbling to the ground. He moves to take it back, but Aomine's faster.

He scoops the ball from the ground and shoots, almost as if it was all in one fluid movement, lighting quick.

"1-0" Aomine says teasingly, sneering at him.

Kagami growls "Just you wait you bastard…. One more time!"

**-o-o-o-o-o-o-**

Unfortunately by the time the sky starts turning orange Kagami hasn't won once. He has four almost-wins though (Aomine laughed at him when he said it but he can shove it because they were _**so **_almost-wins).

"What about that Taiga?" Aomine chuckles "Looks like you'll have to hear me out"

Kagami grunts, wipes off his sweat with the front of his shirt "Day's not over"

"Sun says otherwise, unless you plan to skip dinner and keep me up all night, we have the time and energy for only one more go"

"Really?" Kagami takes a deep breath "I could keep going for three. You lack stamina Aomine."

"Says the guy who's desperately trying to not look like he's panting" Aomine snorts "One more, if I win, you hear me out"

Kagami's crinkles his nose and furrows his eyebrows; mouth pursed, evident disdain on his face. He figures Aomine won't play past this next one-on-one even if he doesn't agree, so any objection would be for naught.

"_**Fine**_" he says, making it sound as grudging as possible.

"Alright—" Aomine throws the ball to his chest, and Kagami catches it with both hands "—come at me!"

Kagami dribbles the ball, slowly steps a little to the right, weighing his options.

"Haven't got all day Taiga" Aomine chides impatiently

"Shut up" Kagami growls "Gimme a minute"

"_What would Aomine do?"_ he thinks, then mentally shakes his head _"Ah no, that's wrong, what would _**I **_do? I should do the opposite of that"_

He throws the words "go right" and "go left" around his mind in various combinations, trying to figure out what'd best surprise the basketball monster in front of him. Frustratingly, he comes up with nothing concrete. And he almost just improvises, the words "to hell with it" nearly on his lips, when it hits him—_"Well there's that" _he thinks.

"_Why the hell not"_

He steps forward quickly, feigning a move to the right, knowing Aomine will be one step ahead of him, reading his body language and getting into position to block him, but then just as quickly, he steps back and gets into position to shoot.

He gets as far as actually shooting the ball before Aomine pops out of fucking nowhere to swat it away.

Kagami stares at him in awe, amazed that he could pull that off without having predicted what Kagami would do. Then his expression quickly turns to that of mild horror as he remembers just what's happened.

"You surprised me" Aomine says, sounding mildly impressed "And I'm not sure what you were talking about when you said something's missing with you, but I guess it's _**that**_"

"That?" Kagami asks carefully

"Yeah, uh, what's it called?" he scratches the side of his temple "Ah! Right, _**animal instinct**_; takes you too fucking long to figure out what to do, you're intimidating to other losers only cause you're rough, and you think too much"

Kagami takes a moment to digest that, then mutters "…..that's the first time anyone's ever told me I think too much"

Aomine snorts "I'm not surprised"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It is what it is…" Aomine shrugs, then grins "And _**you **_are going to have to hear me out now"

Kagami's stomach churns in dread, he walks towards the bench where he'd dumped his things and takes a big gulp of water from his jug. He exhales loudly, then swallows before slowly saying "Ok… uh, go ahead then"

"Ok so—" Aomine sounds so eager it's _**weird **_"—I was watching this show, it was like, a special on cheese—"

"Do you watch nothing all day but the food channel or—"

"Shut up I watch basketball games too….. and porn"

"I didn't need to know that"

Aomine waves a hand "Anyway, _**so I was watching a cheese special**_, and the host dude goes to this place right? And they _**STEAM THEIR CHEESE THERE**_, it gets all goey-like and amazing. They also steam their burger patties and it just looks so fucking good I—" Aomine breathes "—yeah, ok anyway, so I want you to make that for me"

"Ah, you're talking about Ted's! Love that place, been there only once though, trip with my parents" Kagami's eyes shift away, looking a bit nostalgic, a small sad smile on his face "Good times…" he says softly.

"Great! So you know how to make it?"

Kagami shrugs "Guess I could come up with something similar…"

Aomine grins at him, and Kagami studiously ignores the weird twinge in his chest.

**-o-o-o-o-**

It took a bit of thought to figure out how he was going to steam the cheese, but Kagami was happy with the end result. He's pretty sure it isn't going to taste anything like Ted's but Aomine isn't going to know that anyway.

He slowly puts the gooey cheese onto the burger patty with Aomine staring, practically drooling really, and he has to admit he for once understands the overenthusiasm.

"_**God**_ that's sexy" Aomine says gruffly "Can't wait to get it in me"

"Ugh, don't talk like that" Kagami grimaces "I don't want to hear that kind of thing from you"

He carefully puts lettuce, tomatoes, and a bun on top of the cheese then shoves the plate towards Aomine.

"Here, give it a taste"

Aomine eagerly takes the burger with both hands and takes one big bite. There's a string of cheese connecting his mouth to the burger as he chews and says "Yessss" in a muffled voice.

"Don't talk with your mouth full" Kagami says, sounding irked, though he's a little bit glad it turned out well

"It tastes great" Aomine says after he swallows, cheese and ketchup on the edge of his lips and on his chin.

Kagami scrunches his nose "You have a little something here" he says, pointing towards the general vicinity of his own mouth.

Aomine wipes the right side of his mouth with his thumb.

"Still some there"

Making a frustrated sound, Aomine wipes the left side.

"Uh, there's still—"

"Argh, why don't _**you **_wipe it off" Aomine leans his head forward towards Kagami, looking impatient.

Kagami hesitates, inches back a little but, then takes the front of his apron and wipes the cheese off Aomine's chin. The proximity makes him uncomfortable for some reason, but he tries not to show it.

"It's gone" he says as he pulls back "Bring your plate over to the table while I make mine"

Aomine takes his plate and strolls over to the table by way of reply. He then proceeds to continue to make indecent sounds as he eats his burger, causing Kagami to almost mess up making his own.

After finishing his burger Kagami sets his plate on the table, before taking off his apron and hanging it over the counter. He fetches two glasses of water loudly placing one in front of Aomine, who mutters a "thank you" while his mouth is full.

Kagami sighs but doesn't bother to criticize him again, because it'd be useless and also because it isn't as if he doesn't do that as well sometimes (not that he'd give Aomine the satisfaction by openly admitting it).

He takes a bite of his burger and revels in the texture of the cheese, nothing like Ted's (as expected), but pretty damn good, even if he is saying so himself. He looks towards Aomine who's happily chewing and thinks _"Well, _**he**_ seems to think so too at least"_.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Aomine asks laughingly, startling Kagami enough that he fumbles with the burger in his hands.

"Ah I—"he clears his throat "—I'm _**not**_"

"Right" Aomine snorts "You're so weird"

Kagami glares at him "I don't want to hear that from you" he snaps, thereafter taking a huge bite of his burger, chewing as he glares at somewhere vaguely to his right.

Aomine just snorts again before going back to his food. They eat in relative silence for a few minutes, until Aomine speaks again.

"Tomorrow I want a steamed cheese sandwich for lunch"

"Not possible" Kagami says firmly

Aomine grunts "Why not?"

"It's not going to be anything like this because it'd have cooled down for a few hours by them" he replies "We're better off with the usual kinda stuff"

Aomine frowns "What about grilled cheese sandwiches?"

"_So persistent"_ Kagami thinks, then sighs

"Yeah I guess that's fine…" he concedes "… do you want me to make cheese fries? Ah, wait no those'll taste gross by lunch time"

"Just make the cheese sauce" Aomine says excitedly "Lots of it, I'll bring potato chips"

"Are you even responsible enough to be trusted with doing that?"

"Of course I am" Aomine finishes up his burger and licks his fingers "It's food, I'll bring it"

Kagami sighs, and finishes up his burger as well. "Gimme your plate, I'm gonna wash it"

He silently gets up and heads for the sink. There he squeezes a drop of dishwasher onto a sponge and then turns on the faucet. He feels Aomine's eyes on him and so he turns his head to look back.

"What?" he asks, discomfort in his voice, back stiffening.

Aomine hums thoughtfully "You're kind of like a housewife huh?"

Kagami nearly drops the plate in his hands when he chokes on his spit "WHAT THE FUCK"

"I mean, your house is really clean, you can cook well, and you seem to be able to do all your chores" he smirks "I bet you even wash your own underwear"

"You _**don't**_ wash your own underwear?" Kagami blanches "Then who _**does**_?"

"My mom does" Aomine says unashamed

And Kagami can't help it, he just starts laughing. He's laughing so hard his stomach hurts and he has to hunch over the sink.

"Oh my _**god**_ you're a five year old kid" he manages in between guffaws "I mean you don't even need to hand wash the damn things, you have a washing machine at home don't you?"

Aomine glares at him "I don't know how to use washing machines" he grunts "I'm not a girl" (1)

"I know a lot of 'girls' that'll punch you in the face for that comment. Momoi's one of them"

"Yeah, well shut up"

Kagami chuckles again "_**Five year old**_"

"Well if I'm a five year old, then you're my mom"

"That's insulting to both of us"

Aomine shrugs and Kagami just rolls his eyes, going back to washing their plates. "If you want to use my shower go ahead, I'll just lend you clothes again"

"Nah, brought my own stuff today" Kagami can hear the clatter of a chair as Aomine stands up "Anyway, I'm using your shower"

"Yeah, yeah" Kagami waves him off then shouts "Don't use up all the hot water!"

"Yes mom" Aomine shouts back, before the door of the bathroom clicks shut.

Kagami fights a smile, and mutters to himself "That bastard...".

**-o-o-o-**

(1) lol, on the fence about how in character this is, but i thought that he's being defensive here so what the hey, and also i just thought, that hey if Aomine's the type of guy who'd say boobs are filled with dreams, then he's the type of guy who'll make a comment like this when Momoi's not there to hear it

**END NOTES:** Kagami's starting to feel weird things, hmmm. No idea when the next update will be. I'm just REALLY busy with school, I update on tumblr quicker (I post one chapter here in three parts there, they're posted as I finish them). Just one month left in my semester though, and then I'll have about a month of break so expect more updates then… err… hopefully


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